Diplomacy, the art of balance

written for the Peace Boat website, Dec 30, 2012 >>

As a student Rafendi Djamin was imprisoned for his human rights activism under the Indonesian military regime – today he was nominated president of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights. But he witnesses how governments and local elites have found other ways to bypass human rights: Often they simply do not implement the laws on the ground.