2) ASIA/INDONESIA - Possible amnesty for political prisoners in Papua: Franciscans call for "initiative for a in-depth dialogue”
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https://humanrightsmonitor.org/news/eudr-and-west-papua-will-europes-anti-deforestation-law-deliver-real-change/
1) EUDR and West Papua: Will Europe’s Anti-Deforestation Law deliver real change?
In 2020, the European Commission launched the European Green Deal, an ambitious policy framework targeting climate neutrality across the European Union (EU) by 2050. Central to this initiative is the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), a policy designed to ensure that products entering the EU market are deforestation-free. The EUDR mandates that companies conduct rigorous due diligence to verify that their supply chains are free from deforestation, forest degradation, and associated human rights violations. However, while the regulation represents a significant step forward, it has limitations. The EUDR’s scope is restricted to deforestation occurring after 2020, follows the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) narrow definition of forests (excluding critical ecosystems like wetlands and mangroves), and applies only to seven key commodities: cattle, wood, cocoa, soy, palm oil, coffee, and rubber. Nevertheless, the EUDR holds profound implications for West Papua and Indonesia, where agribusiness expansion and related investments have been linked to widespread environmental destruction and human rights abuses.
Delays and Dilution: The EUDR Under Pressure
When the EUDR was formally adopted in June 2023, its implementation was slated to begin on 30 December 2024. However, intense lobbying from Indonesia, other producer nations, industry groups, and certain EU member states led the European Commission to propose a 12-month delay. This proposal sparked a contentious debate within the European Parliament, where the European People’s Party (EPP) and far-right factions sought to further weaken the regulation through a series of amendments. Notably, in the weeks leading up to the vote, the Indonesian Embassy engaged in meetings with several far-right MEPs. The 12-month delay was approved through the adoption of the amended regulation in December 2024, granting the Indonesian government and other opponents additional time to potentially undermine the regulation’s effectiveness and find alternative markets with less stringent environmental controls. According to the current status of the resolution, the European deforestation regulation will come into force on 1 December 2025.
Risk Classifications and Human Rights Concerns
A key feature of the EUDR is its classification of countries into low-, standard-, or high-risk categories, which will determine the level of scrutiny applied to their exports. However, European NGOs have raised alarms that the European Commission may fail to adequately account for human rights violations and illegal activities in its risk assessments. This oversight could undermine the regulation’s ability to address the root causes of deforestation and forest degradation, particularly in regions like West Papua, where environmental destruction is often intertwined with systemic human rights abuses.
West Papua’s Forests: A Global Climate Asset Under Threat
The Indonesian government has consistently framed the conflict in West Papua as an economic issue, claiming that increased investment in natural resource extraction and agribusiness will solve the crisis. However, these investments have often fuelled environmental degradation, social conflict, and human rights violations, exacerbating the very problems they claim to address.
West Papua’s forests are not only vital to the livelihoods, cultures, and survival of Indigenous peoples but also play a critical role in mitigating the global climate crisis. The island of New Guinea is home to the world’s third-largest tropical rainforest, a biodiversity hotspot that stores more carbon per hectare than the Amazon or Congo Basin. These forests are also integral to the Coral Triangle, a marine region that supports over 75% of the world’s known coral species and is recognised as a global conservation priority. Yet, West Papua’s forests are under increasing threat from deforestation and degradation driven by palm oil expansion, logging, mining, and infrastructure development. These activities not only devastate local ecosystems but also release vast amounts of stored carbon, exacerbating the climate crisis.
Deforestation Trends in West Papua: A Growing Crisis
Over the past two decades under Indonesian rule, West Papua has lost or degraded more than 800,000 hectares of forest. While deforestation rates across Indonesia began declining in 2015, the opposite happened in West Papua, particularly under Jokowi. According to Greenpeace, 40% of Indonesia’s palm oil-related deforestation since 2015 has occurred in West Papua, and PUSAKAfound that the deforestation rate in 2010-2019 was more than double the preceding decade. Furthermore, an additional 1.9 million hectares of forest in West Papua are already allocated as concessions for palm oil and timber, signalling the potential for further devastation.
The Prabowo Administration: A New Era of Environmental Risk
The new president, Prabowo Subianto, has declared that Indonesia will accelerate the decline of West Papua’s forests under his rule. In one of his first acts as president, Prabowo travelled to Merauke to promote the National Strategic Project (PSN) of Merauke Food and Energy Zone, which seeks to convert 2 million hectares of indigenous forests into rice paddies and sugar cane plantations. This project has been rejected by the Malind and Yei indigenous people who own these forests, and their protests have been met with threats and intimidation by the Indonesian military. Prabowo has also dismissed environmental concerns about palm oil expansion with the absurd claim that plantations do not cause deforestation since oil palms have leaves.
The EUDR represents a critical opportunity to curb deforestation and protect the rights of Indigenous communities in West Papua and beyond. However, its effectiveness will depend on the EU’s willingness to resist pressure from industry and producer nations, enforce robust due diligence requirements, and prioritise human rights in its risk assessments. In 2024, the Permanent Peoples Tribunal found that the Indonesian government and private corporations are “failing to adequately meet their legal and ethical obligations to West Papuans and their environment as set out by the State’s national laws and regulations as well as international treaty obligations,” with the ecological degradation intrinsically linked to efforts to obliterate the indigenous people of West Papua. If the EUDR is to have any credibility, it must classify this situation as ‘high-risk’ in the benchmarking process and closely monitor the implementation of the regulation by companies operating in Indonesia.
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2) ASIA/INDONESIA - Possible amnesty for political prisoners in Papua: Franciscans call for "initiative for a in-depth dialogue”
Thursday, 6 February 2025
Jayapura (Agenzia Fides) – In order to manage the armed conflict that has plagued the Indonesian region of West Papua for decades, the Indonesian government, led by the new President Prabowo Subianto, is considering an amnesty for the independence rebels in Papua. The Minister of Justice, Human Rights and Immigration, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, described the proposal as "under study" and said that the government is working out the details of the amnesty plan, which would only be granted to those who swear allegiance to the Republic of Indonesia.
The measure is "intended as part of the effort to resolve the conflict" and still needs the approval of the House of Representatives. Prabowo's amnesty proposal follows a similar initiative by former President Joko Widodo, who pardoned political prisoners from Papua in 2015.
Meanwhile, among the population of Papua, there is a certain skepticism about the central government's proposal. Father Alexandro Rangga (OFM), Friar Minor and Director of the "Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation" Commission in Papua, stressed to Fides: "It is true that the release of some prisoners imprisoned for political reasons could mean some relief for the families". However, he recalls that "the prisoners released in the past are no longer the same: they have suffered deep trauma, some no longer speak, perhaps because of the mistreatment they suffered. It will therefore be necessary to verify the condition of the released prisoners". I
n addition, there is a fundamental problem: "The government measure risks being an inadequate step if it is not embedded in a broader plan of 'holistic' dialogue, that is, at all levels, which fully takes into account the situation in the region and the suffering of the local population," the Franciscan priest notes. "The people of Papua fear that this is only a consolation and that fundamental issues remain unresolved," he notes. "We therefore call for an initiative for in-depth dialogue and the empowerment of all actors involved in order to get to the root of the problems and achieve peace," he says.
The Franciscan recalls what happened to the inhabitants of five villages in the Oksop district of central Papua, the territory of the diocese of Jayapura (see Fides, 17/1/2025). They fled to other areas at the end of November due to the deployment of military units in the area. According to the Commission of the Friars Minor, 300 people have been displaced to other villages and many others have hidden in the forest, "but according to the army and other officials, these reports are not true," he notes. "For this reason, our Commission for Justice and Peace is now preparing a detailed report with a list of the displaced and the problems they face; we intend to present it to the Indonesian President together with the bishops and religious leaders of Papua”. According to Father Rangga, “the real problem in Papua remains open, namely the military action of the Indonesian central government to promote its policies and projects in the territory. This approach leads to suffering on the ground and a feeling of violent imposition”.
Papua, the easternmost region of Indonesia, which forms the western half of the island of New Guinea, has been a place of tension since its controversial incorporation into the Republic of Indonesia by military force in 1969. Inhabited by people of Melanesian origin and rich in natural resources, the region saw a separatist uprising in the early 1970s. Despite its wealth of resources, Papua remains one of the poorest regions in Indonesia, with high rates of poverty and illiteracy. (PA) (Agenzia Fides, 6/2/2025)
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