UN Rights Meeting

What is the use of sending a big delegation to UN Rights Meeting in Geneva next March? For Papuan it is a real good gesture from Indonesian government to include representatives from Papua.

Here is the related news from Jakarta Globe:

Supersized Delegation Attending UN Rights Meet

It’s not a matter of who has been invited to attend the United Nations Human Rights Council Assembly in Geneva from March 2 to 27, but who hasn’t.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday that as well as its own delegation, it had asked for representation from the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights; the Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal and Security Affairs; the Coordinating Ministry for People’s Welfare; the Attorney General’s Office; the Ministry of Home Affairs; the National Police; the Indonesian Armed Forces; the Ministry of Social Affairs; the Ministry of Religious Affairs; the Constitutional Court; and the Judicial Commission.

Human rights lawyer cleared in Indonesia

Good News from West Papua delivered worldwide by Amnesty International:

29 January 2009

A prominent human rights lawyer in Indonesia has been cleared of charges relating to a text message he is alleged to have sent to his friends and family contacts. Iwanggin Sabar Olif, a member of the Papuan organization ELSHAM (Lembaga Studi dan Advokasi Hak Asasi Manusia, Institute for Human Rights Study and Advocacy), had faced up to six years in prison.

The text message asked people to be careful because Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had ordered a deadly program together with the army aimed at “eradicating” (membasmikan) the Papuan population through food poisoning and other violent actions. However, Iwanggin Sabar Olif always denied having written or sent this message, or even having received it.

Human rights: business responsibility

What are the human rights responsibilities of corporations? Christine Bader, BP’s manager of policy development currently on secondment to the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for business & human rights, provides an overview of the current debate.

Business is increasingly multinational, and corporations from all countries continue to grow in scale and scope. But with this expanded breadth, business can increasingly impact on human rights, both positively and negatively.

Commission investigates abuses in West Papua

Source : Survival International

Indonesia’s National Commission on Human RIghts is currently investigating human rights violations and atrocities in West Papua.

Research is being carried out on atrocities committed between 1963 and 2002. The results will be presented at a meeting this month.

Reports say the Commission’s research has been met with protests by the Attorney-General’s Office (AGO) in Jakarta, which holds different views from the Commission on past rights abuses.

‘What the AGO wants are legally recognized facts and physical evidence, not just reports and assumptions,’ said an AGO spokesperson. ‘People can say this or that, but where is the proof?’

The people in West Papua have been the victims of human rights atrocities committed by the Indonesian military and police for forty-five years. Those who stand up to protest against this brutality are regularly tortured and killed.

West Papua: The Truth and Lies

Free West Papua (FWP) has received information detailing the truth and lies about West Papuan criminal detainees, who are held by the Indonesian police and prison service in Jayapura, Manokwari and Timika.

Even though unfair treatment of  criminal detainees are common in many places in the world, such unfairness can not take place in Papua. We should push the improvement of treatment of criminal detainees in Papua.