Model Parliamentary Questions on West Papua

September 16, 2020

Below is a list of questions for members of our International Parliamentarians for West Papua (IPWP) network to table in their national legislatures concerning issues of vital importance in West Papua. Please write to your local parliamentarian or representative asking them to table some of these questions!

Military Operations

  • What representations have been made to the Indonesian authorities regarding ongoing Indonesian military operations in the West Papuan regencies of Nduga, Intan Jaya and Puncak Jaya?
  • Given reports of up to 45,000 civilians displaced by Indonesian military operations in Nduga, West Papua, will the government consider halting all arms transfers and training programmes to Indonesia?

International diplomacy

  • Whether the government supports the call of the Pacific Islands Forum and Organisation of African, Caribbean & Pacific States for Indonesia to allow the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights into West Papua to prepare and independent report?
  • Whether the government would support a resolution at the Human Rights Council on West Papua if Indonesia continues to bar the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from entering?

Special Autonomy

  • What assessment the government has of the growing refusal of the Indigenous West Papuan population of Jakarta’s ‘Special Autonomy Volume II’?
  • Whether the government will heed the call of the representatives of Indigenous West Papuans and halt any and all development funding under Indonesia’s Special Autonomy provisions in West Papua?

Political Prisoners

  • Whether the government will call for the release eight political prisoners in Wamena who were arrested for allegedly participating in anti-racism demonstrations in 2019?
  • What representations the government has made to counterparts in Indonesia over the enforced exile of human rights lawyer Veronica Koman for her advocacy for Indigenous West Papuans?

Human Rights

  • How the government responds to reports of increased state-linked militia activity in West Papua as part of a strategy to repress the independence movement?
  • What representations the government has made to Indonesian authorities concerning the killing of Indigenous West Papuan pastor Yeremia Zanambani by the Indonesian military on September 19, 2020.