International Seminar Commemorating 70 years of UDHR

In commemorating the 70th Anniversary of World Human Rights Day which falls on December 10 2018, the Faculty of Law UII collaborates with the Center for Human Rights Studies (PUSHAM), the Norwegian Center of Human Rights (NCHR) and Base for International Law and ASEAN Legal Studies (BILALS) successfully held an International Seminar entitled “70 Years After UDHR: Indonesian American, and Norwegian on progress perspectives”. This international seminar invited three Human Rights experts who had different backgrounds, namely Eko Riyadi S.H., M.H (Indonesia), Aksel Tomte (Norway), and Christopher Cason JD (United States of America).

On this occasion the event was opened by the Secretary of the Department Faculty of Law the Islamic University of Indonesia, Bagya Agung Prabowo S.H, M.H., Ph.D. In his remarks, Bagya expressed his appreciation and thanks for the organization of this event, “Thank you for the presence of all the participants who attended the seminar today and also thank all the speakers. Hopefully with this international seminar we can increase our knowledge in the field of human rights”, he said.

After the event was opened by him, Dodik Setiawan Nur Heriyanto S.H., M.H., LL.M., P.hD as the moderator invited the three speakers to come on stage and start the session. On this occasion, Eko Riyadi got the first opportunity to give a presentation related to the topic of 70-year after the UDHR: developments, challenges and opportunities. In his presentation, he explained that there was still a debate between the UDHR as an instrument and the Indonesian State Constitution. This is proven by several things, “as real evidence of this debate is the application of the Death Penalty as one of the legal sanctions which is contrary to the Right of Life which has been regulated in international human rights instruments such as UDHR and ICCPR,” he said. Furthermore, he also explained that the paradigm related to human rights is western products is still a major challenge in the field of human rights in Indonesia.

Furthermore, Aksel Tomte in his presentation explained the topic about 70-year with the UDHR. Aksel explained that, in Norway, human rights have been written in the constitution since 1814 which regulates freedom of expression and freedom from torture. Internationally, the first International Human Rights Instrument ratified by Norway took place in 1953 through the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR). In the development of human rights in Norway, human rights have brought several changes such as the Amendment of the Norwegian Constitution in 2014 by adding a new chapter on human rights. On the contrary, in the last few years Refugee and Immigrant cases have still become “Missing links” in Norwegian Law.

The theme of the last presentation in this international seminar was related to the Progress towards the UDHR hosted by Christopher Cason JD. In his presentation, he explained that the progress of human rights enforcement in the United States (USA) facing “ups and downs”. “In 1964, the US Government promulgated a law relating to civil rights, which was a strict form of our government to prevent further discrimination cases. However, this development did not reach its peak after the tragedy of 9/11 which resulted in the government issuing the Patriot Act and gave authority to the government to overcome terrorism in a way that was not in accordance with the law, “he said. The event was attended by around 150 participants from students, lecturers, lawyers, police officer’s academy, human rights activists, etc. The participants were very enthusiastic listening including giving some questions related to the topic of today’s international seminar, in total there were about ten questions asked by the participants to be discussed in this international seminar. Through this event, participants are expected to increase their knowledge in the field of Law, especially in the Human Rights Law.