3) PAPUA 2026 AUGUST List of information sources in Bahasa /English
Jayapura, Jubi – Indonesia’s National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) has discussed the human rights situation in Papua with the Papua Special Committee of the Regional Representatives Council (DPD RI).
The human rights situation in Papua was discussed during a coordination meeting between Komnas HAM and the DPD RI Papua Special Committee on Thursday (3 September 2026).
Atnike Nova Sigiro, head of Komnas HAM’s Papua Team, said the meeting also discussed strategic collaboration that could be pursued by the two institutions to promote a more conducive human rights situation in Papua.
“This meeting is part of Komnas HAM’s efforts, through its Papua Team, to encourage the state to fulfil and protect human rights in Papua,” Ms Sigiro said in an electronic message on Friday (4 September 2026).
She said the two sides also discussed a number of human rights challenges and issues in Papua, including conflict and violence, internally displaced people, the effectiveness of institutions responsible for Papua-related affairs, and National Strategic Projects (PSN).
However, she said the discussions focused particularly on the situation of violence and armed conflict in Papua.
One consequence of the armed conflict has been waves of internal displacement in several parts of Papua where conflict has been particularly intense, including Yahukimo, Mimika and Nabire regencies.
“The response to internal displacement needs to be carried out quickly to prevent the loss of the future of young people and Indigenous Papuans as a result of limited access to basic services such as healthcare, education and employment due to conflict, violence and displacement,” she said.
Ms Sigiro said Komnas HAM had specifically urged the DPD RI Papua Special Committee to encourage coordination between relevant ministries and government agencies and local governments across Papua to address the issue of internal displacement.
As a follow-up, Komnas HAM and the DPD RI Papua Special Committee committed to continuing their cooperation and coordination in responding to various human rights issues in Papua.
“We will encourage strategic steps towards peace so that the fulfilment and protection of human rights in Papua can be improved,” she said.
The meeting was attended by Komnas HAM members Atnike Nova Sigiro, Amiruddin Al Rahab and Abdul Haris Semendawai.
They were received by Yorrys Raweyai, chair of the DPD RI Papua Special Committee and deputy speaker of the DPD RI, along with several other members of the committee. (*)
Jayapura, Jubi – Abner Mansai, Executive Secretary of the Papua Forum for Cooperation among Non-Governmental Organisations (FOKER LSM Papua), said development and investment policies in Papua often disregard Indigenous land ownership systems that existed long before the establishment of the Indonesian state.
Mansai made the remarks during a discussion on the third day of the PAPEDA Summit 2026 in Sorong, Southwest Papua province, on Friday (04/09/2001).
The PAPEDA Summit is a gathering of civil society organisations and Indigenous communities from across Papua, with local government representatives also attending.
The meeting was initiated by civil society organisations as a forum for dialogue and the exchange of information and experiences, as well as to scrutinise government policies that participants say marginalise Indigenous communities and take over their living spaces in the name of development.
The three-day forum was characterised by a strong sense of camaraderie among participants, alongside robust and rational debate during the discussion sessions.
The participating civil society organisations work on a range of strategic issues in Papua, including economic, social, cultural and environmental rights, as well as civil and political rights. The forum was held from 2 to 4 September 2026 in Sorong, Southwest Papua.
The three-day meeting served not only as a space for consolidation, but also as an opportunity to scrutinise development policies that participants said had deviated from, or been implemented without the involvement of, the customary owners of Indigenous territories.
Mansai said that under the Constitution, the government should support development in a way that enables Indigenous communities to live independently and sustainably.
“The government should not come and take the natural resources belonging to Indigenous communities. Where is social justice?” Mansai said.
He said that since the Special Autonomy Law for Papua was first introduced, numerous disputes over land tenure had emerged as a result of what he described as government and investor ambitions and compromises that failed to recognise Papuans’ customary rights over land and its natural resources.
He said local governments and regional leadership forums across Papua should be willing to defend Papuans’ rights to customary land and its natural resources.
He criticised what he described as political support for Indigenous communities being limited to election periods, after which elected representatives leave their constituents to face corporations accused of destroying customary land and the communities’ living spaces.
“We have recorded that the practice of developing Indigenous Papuans has become merely a slogan for expanding power. Many of these practices have resulted in human rights violations, ecological damage and ecological disasters that are difficult to reverse, without accountability from the state,” he said.
Mansai also said there was no state-owned land in Papua. He argued that Papua’s land had been given by God to Papuans and inherited through generations before the establishment of the Indonesian state.
He said Indigenous communities, as the customary heirs to the land, rejected what he described as the seizure, appropriation or declaration of customary land as state-owned land by the government and corporations in the name of development.
Apey, an activist representing the Domberai People’s Front, said National Strategic Projects (PSN) were being justified solely on the grounds of development.
He argued that projects presented as development had been, and would continue to be, used in a structured and systematic way to gradually take control of Indigenous territories, forcibly displacing and marginalising Indigenous communities from their living spaces.
Based on previous experiences, he said, projects supported by the military had proceeded smoothly.
“They [the military] are not protecting the country’s territory, but instead presenting a new face of development that terrorises Indigenous communities who hold customary rights to land and natural resources, to satisfy oligarchs, investors and their cronies,” Apey said.
Marlince Siep, an Indigenous women’s leader, said a series of development projects across Papua had also affected Indigenous women.
She said that from the Reformasi era through to the implementation of the Special Autonomy Law, including its second amendment, many Papuan women had experienced discrimination and harassment.
“In the name of development, the government has removed areas that serve productive, functional and beneficial purposes, particularly for women and children,” Siep said.
She said Indigenous women had a close relationship with forests and land because they provided medicinal plants, sources of food and protection for customary land rights.
Siep said these changes could also affect birth rates and infant health and development because forests’ health and food resources had been converted for investment purposes.
She said many Indigenous women could face threats to their livelihoods, while future generations could grow up in unstable conditions if development practices continued to be carried out or allowed to continue based on what she described as an incorrect government perspective.
“We want to tell the government and other stakeholders that if you are government officials leading today, it is only because you were born from the womb of a Papuan woman,” she said.
Siep said land was “mother” and called on the government and other stakeholders to preserve the remaining forests and healthy environment so they could be passed on to future generations of Indigenous Papuan women and allow their children to grow up in a healthy environment.
Drawing on what they described as experiences of customary rights and natural resources being taken in the name of development and prosperity for Indigenous Papuans, civil society organisations, Indigenous communities from across Papua, participants and partners of FOKER LSM Papua attending the PAPEDA Summit issued a joint statement.
They said Papua is neither state-owned land nor empty land and called for development practices carried out in the name of investment and National Strategic Projects to be stopped.
They also rejected National Strategic Projects, community rice-field programmes and other projects in Papua that are justified on development grounds but, they said, destroy the sources of livelihood of Indigenous communities.
They called for an end to development and investment projects that destroy customary land, which they described as a living space for Indigenous women and an essential environment for the growth of Papuan children as the future generation.
They also called for the military to return to the barracks and for authorities to prioritise a persuasive approach in accordance with Indonesian law. (*)
3) PAPUA 2026 AUGUST List of information sources in Bahasa /English
PAPUA 2026 AGUSTUS daftar sumber informasi
oleh
Theo van den Broek
Catatan – Remark :
karena saya dalam perjalanan diluar Papua selama beberapa bulan, saya tidak sempat menyiapkan laporan bulan Mei sampai dengan Juli 2026. Mohon dimaklumi. Terima kasih. TvdB
as I have been traveling outside Papua for several months, I wasn’t in the position to prepare a monthly report for the period of May, June and July 2026. Thanks for your understanding. TvdB…………………………..
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