assimilation policies, mean they are now a minority in their own land: representing only 42% of the population, which is projected to drop to 28.99% by 2020. 5. Against this backdrop that I welcome recommendation [22], recognising that minorities can be disproportionality subjected to human rights violations. Hundreds of thousands of Papuans are estimated to have suffered extra-judicial killings, torture, sexual violence and enforced disappearances at the hands of police and military forces in Indonesia. Peaceful protests are regularly met with excessive force and mass arrests. The International Coalition for Papua reports that, on average, there is more than one extra-judicial killing each month in security operations. All victims are indigenous Papuans who are often, but not necessarily linked to political activism. But they are generally targeted because of their racial identity. 6. I say “known cases” because many extra-judicial executions and cases of excessive force go unreported because human rights defenders, journalists and international observers have limited or no access to West Papua. I welcome draft recommendation [23] calling for states to document and prosecute these cases and the recommendations [17]-[19] on data collection to demonstrate these patterns of abuse and discrimination. 7. However, I emphasise the role for local and international civil society in improving documentation and in promoting protection for minorities that envisaged in recommendation [57]. Previous Indonesian administrations denied there were any political prisoners in West Papua. A civil society documentation project, Papuans Behind Bars, was created with international support to provide the statistical data to prove this was false. We now know there are as many as 100 political prisoners – all indigenous Papuans – in West Papua today. It is essential a recommendation be included to ensure states allow international organisations access to regions like West Papua to assist and support local civil society, which will ensure the role envisaged for them in recommendation 57. 8. In light of the abuse of police powers we see in West Papua and elsewhere, I welcome recommendation [20] calling for the prohibition of discriminatory exercise of police powers of arrest. In West Papua, we have seen mass arrests at peaceful protests and torture and mistreatment in pre-charge detention. Several hundred arrests are documented each year, where indigenous Papuans are unfairly targeted for exercising their democratic rights. In this regard, the recommendations should include specific concern about the criminalisation of social protest by minorities – an increasing global trend we see through the work of our Bertha Justice Initiative partners. This is consistent with the general consideration emphasised at the last Forum on the need to address obstacles which deprive minorities the opportunity to benefit equally from the socio-economic and political life of the state (see [9]).