A number of non-governmental organizations have asked the government to immediately ratify UN Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Forced Disappearance.

The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) and the Indonesian Association of Families of the Disappeared (Ikohi) said in a press statement on Monday the Law and Human Rights Ministry must take the initiative in an effort to ratify the convention.

The NGOs also asked the ministry to convince the Indonesian president of the importance of ratifying the convention to strengthen the national law system.

The ratification could be started by preparing academic notes as a preliminary process of ratifying the convention and building intensive communication among relevant ministries, they said.

Both Kontras and Ikohi lauded the step taken by Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa who signed the convention on September 27 last year.

Unfortunately, the positive step was not followed up by ratifying the convention, they said.

Noting that no Indonesian law firmly carried definition of forced disappearance, they said the effort to ratify the convention was needed to give legal certainty to the public so that they would not fall victim to forced disappearance. ( Antara)