A side event to the 57th UN Human Rights Council entitled “Human Rights in West Papua,” hosted by the World Council of Churches (WCC) and partner organizations on 1 October, addressed the dire human rights situation in the Papuan provinces of Indonesia, with ongoing violations that include extra-judicial killings, internal displacement due to armed conflict, restrictions on civil liberties, and a growing number of cases of land grabbing. 

Peter Prove, director of the WCC Commission of the Churches on International Affairs, moderated the discussion.

“Our event is focusing on the human rights situation in West Papua, which I think probably qualifies as the worst and longest standing human rights and humanitarian crisis that most people have never heard of—and we haven't heard of it for a very specific reason,” he said. “It's not an accident; it's a deliberate consequence of the lack of access that Indonesia allows for representatives of the international community to the territory.”

 Leonardo Ijie, a human rights lawyer from West Papua, has been working on cases related to land grabbing and deforestation that have triggered opposition from local communities.

“People who fight to protect their forests and ancestral lands are met with oppressive actions from the military,” he said. “Civil society is criminalised, arrested, jailed, and hit with treason charges from the security apparatus.”

Ijie went on to say that it is not unusual for civilians to be forced to leave their villages, because they do not want to endure state violence. “They become refugees in their own land,” he said. “Villages which are left behind are then open to be ransacked.”

He chose to become a lawyer after witnessing the land and forest of his own mother being taken away by the government.

“It pained my heart as the child who would inherit the land, witnessing the loss of my mother’s rights to her ancestral land and forest,” he said. “We see our land and forest as a mother.”

Ijie has been involved in advocacy to make the world pay attention to what is happening in Papua right now. “Land grabbing by the Indonesian government is pervasive,” he said. “Our ancestral lands and forest are like a mother for me, a Papuan. Saving Papuan land and its forests is a way of saving the world from the threat of global warming.”

Nurina Savitri, from Amnesty International Indonesia, noted that Indonesia has not passed the Indigenous Peoples Bill, which would provide for the recognition of Indigenous peoples and the protection of their rights.

“In addition to the stalled progress, the current bill still contains various problems, such as an intricate process to acquire recognition of Indigenous peoples from the state,” said Savitri. “Challenges ahead include the racial profiling by security forces targeting and discriminating West Papuans in protests and other activities, impunity for gross human rights violations, and the adoption of the new penal code.”

Norman Voss, from Human Rights Monitor, said his project is working with human rights lawyers and journalists, as well as different legal actors in Indonesia who document cases. “Extrajudicial killings are the number-one key issue,” he said. "We have since the beginning of this year documented 13 cases of such killings; they are often conducted as part of military operations.”

Simonetta Fraudatario, from the Permanent People’s Tribunal, described the task of the tribunal as establishing the truth about the criminal events in West Papua and the repression taking place there.

“West Papua represents an exemplary case of contemporary denial of the right of self-determination—a principle that was recognized in the Universal Declaration of Rights which gave birth to this tribunal in 1979.”

In closing remarks, Prove said that the World Council of Churches has been monitoring and advocating with regard to the situation in West Papua for decades. “And over that long period of time, we have observed and continue to observe persistently high levels of serious human rights violations and in many respects a deteriorating situation from both a human rights and a humanitarian perspective, especially in recent years with a much greater incidence of internal displacement due to the conflict and especially due to the actions of Indonesian military and security personnel,” he said. “In this regard, I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to the government of Indonesia, to reverse the policy that currently prevents international humanitarian access to the region in order to respond to the humanitarian crisis there.” 

Representatives from the Indonesian Permanent Mission to Geneva, at the side event, delivered a brief statement underlining that the government of Indonesia remains open to constructive suggestions for further improvement on the human rights situation in Papua.

The event was organised by the World Council of Churches, and supported by Franciscans International, Human Rights Monitor, Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development FORUM-ASIA, Amnesty International, TAPOL Centre for Climate Crime and Climate Justice, and Queen Mary University of London.

Learn more about the WCC work on "Human dignity and rights"

WCC Commission of the Churches on International Affairs

Ecumenical Indigenous Peoples Network

“Human Rights in Indonesia” side event will address crises in West Papua (WCC news release, 30 September 2024)

"In West Papua, WCC expresses grave concern over serious, systemic violations of security and human rights" (WCC news release, 8 September 2022)