Constitutional Justice I Dewa Gede Palguna with Secretary General M. Guntur Hamzah and staff having an audience with the Ambassador to the Netherlands. Photo by Humas MK.

THE HAGUE, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—In his visit to the Netherlands, Constitutional Justice I Dewa Gede Palguna with Secretary General M. Guntur Hamzah and staff members visited the Ambassador of Indonesia to the Netherlands I Gusti Agung Wesaka Puja  at his residence in The Hague, the Netherlands on Thursday (21/11/2019).

In the meeting, Guntur revealed that 2019 is the third year that the Constitutional Court has been sending staff members to a recharging program at The Hague University. The move is an important part to improve the staff’s knowledge to improve services to the constitutional justices in handling court cases.

Guntur added that the Court was going to attend The Hague Conference 2019, which is collaboration between the Court and The Hague University. The conference will be attended by 30 participants from various countries. The conference, which takes the theme “The Protection on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in an Age of Exits,” is expected to be a forum to exchange thoughts and experience of judicial institutions in the world in fulfilling and protecting the social, economic, and cultural rights of their peoples.

Guntur also explained that the Court plays a role in protecting human rights, especially social, economic, and cultural rights in order to guard the 1945 Constitution. This shows Indonesia’s commitment in protecting human rights, especially social, economic, and cultural rights by granting the Constitutional Court the judicial review authority. This authority is a mandate of the 1945 Constitution and the Court’s main duty.

Ambassador I Gusti Agung Wesaka Puja expressed his appreciation to the Court’s commitment in protecting social, economic, and cultural rights as Indonesia has ratified the International Covenant on Human Rights. The Netherlands also protects and fulfills the social and economic rights of the people, as well as their civil and political rights. The country fulfills the Dutch’s rights to health, education, and life comfort. The Netherlands is at the sixth place in the world’s happiness index.

The ambassador expressed his hope that the Joint Conference 2019 on November 21-22 at The Hague University would run smoothly. The audience was then concluded by the handing over of souvenir by Secretary General M. Guntur Hamzah to the ambassador, witnessed by Constitutional Justice Palguna. (Muchtar Hadi Saputra/LA)

Translated by: Yuniar Widiastuti