INTERVENTION
Papua — Indonesia
Wensislaus Fatubun / the Office for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Desk of the
Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, Indonesia - West Papua
AGENDA ITEM # 3: Promotion Dialog between Goverment and Minority group to
effective promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic,
social and cultural rights, including the right to development
Thank you Mr. (Madame) Chairman (Chair)
My name is Wensislaus Fatubun. I am speaking on behalf of the Office for Justice, Peace and
Integrity of Creation of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, and the West Papuan Minority I,
we, work for.
It is the responsibility of States to protect the existence of national or ethnic, cultural, religious
and linguistic identity of minorities within their respective territories and shall encourage
conditions for the promotion of those identities2.
While agreeing to the principle of the Draft Recommendation of this Forum, we would like to
propose an addition that the recommendation should extend to dialog between government
and minority groups in the implementation of laws and policies. The current laws and policies
in place promote discriminative cultural norms that marginalize minorities and ultimately impede
their effective participation in political, education, economic and social life.
In light of this principle, we note that the Indonesian Government Law No.21 of 2001 on
Special Autonomy for West Papua provides legal and political protection for the West Papuan
minority in Indonesia, especially their fundamental rights and freedoms, welfare and the rights
to rectify their own history.
The Law stipulates the obligation of the Government of Indonesia to guarantee the rights of the
West Papuan minority including the rights to culture, education, health and economic
development. Research we conducted in 201 23 confirmed that the right to life of the West
Papuans have been violated by the Indonesian state apparatus. In its concluding observation,
the UN Human Rights Committee in 2013 expressed its concern over the State's use of its
security apparatus to punish political dissidents and human rights defenders4. Cases of extra .
judicial killings, torture and arbitrary arrests and detention between October 2011 and March
2013 showed an increase in violence. Perpetrators who are members of police and military
institutions, are not held accountable. In the remote highland areas such forms of violence are
most frequently documented, where the security forces continue to conduct raids with violence
and intimidate minority Papuan village
.