Journey to Justice: The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the Context of West Papua

Abstract

This article aimed to examine the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), focusing on the rights of the Indigenous Papuan people in the Indonesian provinces on the western half of the island of New Guinea, commonly referred to in English as Papua or West Papua. By drawing on the theory of norm diffusion in the study of international relations, this article argues that despite adopting a declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples, the Indonesian government seems to find fulfilling the rights of Indigenous Papuans challenging due to obfuscation and lack of political will. This article finds that the implementation of special autonomy in Papua has been a failure, as the human rights situation has deteriorated and the fundamental rights of Indigenous Papuans remain unfulfilled.

Researching African Indigenous Population in Contemporary Times: What Scholars and Practitioners Need to Know

“…Researching indigenous people is critical to the development and preservation of indigenous worldviews addressing multiple perspectives and providing information for the understanding of differences in indigenous people, contributing to human diversity, and rich cultures and respecting spiritual, traditional and philosophies to achieve sustainable and equitable development [9]. Hence, researching indigenous people has the following benefits:…”

“…Researching indigenous peoples in an African setting aims to advance a rightbased approach that recognizes and respects indigenous identities, cultures, philosophies and spiritual practices and self-determination fundamental for developing and strengthening knowledge systems. Researching indigenous people is vital to understanding these concepts, giving meaning to information gathered and giving voice to indigenous people stated in the United Nations Human Rights framework [9]. To increase the quality of the information in this chapter, an exploratory approach was used to identify what scholars and practitioners need to know about researching indigenous peoples.…”

Deepening Connectivity and Mobility in Post-Pandemic ASEAN

“…The last article, entitled "Journey to Justice: The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the Context of West Papua", examines the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), focusing on the rights of the Indigenous Papuan people in the Indonesian provinces on the western half of the island of New Guinea, commonly referred to in English as Papua or West Papua. As suggested by Soetjipto (2022), as a result of migration, Papuans are becoming strangers in their land, with tens of thousands of migrants coming to the region every year. As in many other regions in Indonesia where migration is high, resentment toward migrants is widespread in Papua.…”