The United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) has called on the Netherlands to stop selling arms to Indonesia.

Representatives of the ULMWP were this week at the Dutch Parliament for a Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on the human rights situation in West Papua.

In a video relayed to the Dutch from ULMWP members in Papua, the pro-independence group called on the Netherlands to stop selling weapons to Indonesia.

• READ MORE: Indonesia’s human rights body to investigate deaths of 12 Papuans in military operation
• Other West Papua reports

“We, the people of West Papua, urge the Dutch government to stop cooperation and the supply of weapons to Indonesia, because these transactions between Indonesia and the Netherlands, especially weapons, are being bought and used to carry out killings against us.”

This comes amid a recent escalation of violent conflict between Indonesia’s military and Papuan pro-independence fighters.

Indonesia’s Human Rights Commission this week said it was investigating the deaths of a dozen West Papuan civilians last week as the result of a military operation in Central Papua.

Former colonial power
The Netherlands was the former colonial power in West Papua and the rest of Indonesia. As such, the liberation movement said the Dutch had a responsibility to respond to ongoing human rights violations and conflict in Papua.

Current and recent Dutch military exports are largely tied to the Indonesian Navy and concentrated on naval vessels, ship systems and supporting weapons.

A spokesperson for the Dutch Embassy in Indonesia said all licence applications for the export of military goods from the Netherlands were examined carefully and on a case‑by‑case basis, within the framework of the Arms Trade Treaty and the EU Common Position on arms export controls.

“Central to this assessment are the end user of the goods, the intended end use, and the situation in the country of destination.

“In conducting these assessments, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs systematically takes into account all relevant information, including political, security and human rights developments.

“Licence applications are refused where the assessment identifies an overriding risk that the military goods in question could be misused by the end user. The Ministry does not exclude any end users in advance,” the spokesperson said.

RNZ Pacific has sought comment from the Indonesian govenment. Previously, Jakarta has refused to acknowledge the ULMWP has any legitimacy.

At the Parliament hearing in the Hague, the president of ULMWP’s provisional government, Benny Wenda met with some Dutch lawmakers from parties, including the Christian Union and the Progressive Party.

Also in attendance was the British Labour MP Alex Sobel, the chairperson of International Parliamentarians for West Papua.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

A stoush between the Chief Human Rights Commissioner and a Jewish community leader has flared up following a showdown at Parliament.

Appearing before a parliamentary select committee today, Dr Stephen Rainbow was asked about his recent apology for incorrect comments he made about Muslims earlier this year.

“If my language has been injudicious . . .  then I have apologised for that,” he told MPs.

• READ MORE: Sh’ma Koleinu – Alternative Jewish Voices (NZ): When you think of the Jewish community, assume diversity
• Jewish groups call for for resignation of Dr Rainbow
• Racism and Islamophobia at the Office of the Human Rights Commission — Report
• Chief Human Rights Commissioner apologises to Muslim community

“I’ve apologised publicly. I’ve apologised privately. I’ve met with FIANZ [The Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand] to hear their concerns and to apologise to them, both in person and publicly, and I hold to that apology.”

The apology relates to a meeting he had with Jewish community leader Philippa Yasbek, from the anti-Zionist Jewish groups Alternative Jewish Voices and Dayenu, in February.

Yasbek said Rainbow claimed during the meeting that the Security Intelligence Services (SIS) threat assessment found Muslims posed a greater threat to the Jewish community in New Zealand than white supremacists.

In fact, the report states “white identity-motivated violent extremism [W-IMVE] remains the dominant identity-motivated violent extremism ideology in New Zealand”.

Rainbow changed his position
Rainbow told the committee he had since changed his position after receiving new information.

He said was disappointed he had “allowed [his] words to create a perception there was a prejudice there” and he would do everything in his power to repair his relationship with the Muslim community.

“Please be assured that I take this as a learning, and I will be far more measured with my comments in future.”

But Rainbow disputed another of Yasbek’s assertions that he had also raised the supposed antisemitism of Afghan refugees in West Auckland.

“It’s going to be really unhelpful if I get into a he-said-she-said, but I did not say the comments that were attributed to me about that. I do not believe that,” Rainbow said.

“I emphatically deny that I said that.”

‘It definitely stuck in my mind’ – Jewish community leader
Yasbek, who called for Rainbow’s resignation yesterday, was watching the select committee hearing from the back of the room.

Speaking to reporters afterwards, Yasbek said she was certain Rainbow had made the comments about Afghan refugees.

“It was particularly memorable because it was so specific and he said that he was concerned about the risk of anti-semitism in the community of Afghan refugees in West Auckland.

“It’s very specific. It’s not a sort of detail that one is likely to make up, and it definitely stuck in my mind.”

Yasbek said the race relations commissioner and two Human Rights Commission staff members were also in the room and should be interviewed to corroborate what happened.

“There were multiple witnesses. I am concerned that he has impugned my integrity in that way which is why there should be an independent investigation of this matter.”

Raised reported comments
Speaking to RNZ later, FIANZ chairman Abdur Razzaq said he raised the commissioner’s reported comments about Afghan refugees when he met with Rainbow several weeks ago.

“I raised it at the meeting with him and he did not correct me. At my meeting there were other members of the Human Rights Commission. He did not say he didn’t [say that].”

Razzaq said it was up to the justice minister as to whether or not Rainbow was fit for the role.

“When you hear statements like this, like ‘greatest threat’, he has forgotten it was precisely this kind of Islamophobic sentiment which gave rise to the terrorist of March 15, rise to the right-wing extremist terrorists to take action and they justify it with these kinds of statements.”

“[The commissioner] calls himself an academic, a student of history. Where is his lessons learned on this aspect? To pick a Muslim community by name… he has to really genuinely look at himself as to what he is doing and what he is saying.”

Minister backs Rainbow: ‘Doing his best’
Speaking at Parliament following the hearing, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said he backed Rainbow and believed the commissioner would learn from the experience.

“The new commissioner is doing his best. By his own admission he didn’t express himself well. He has apologised and he will be learning from that experience, and it is my expectation that he will be very careful in the way that he communicates in the future.”

Goldsmith said he stood by his appointment of Rainbow, despite the independent panel tasked with leading the process taking a different view.

“There’s a range of opinions on that. The advice that I had originally from the group was a real focus on legal skills, and I thought actually equally important was the ability to communicate ideas effectively.”

Speaking in Christchurch on Thursday afternoon, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said Rainbow had got it “totally wrong” and it was appropriate he had apologised.

“He completely and quite wrongfully mischaracterised a New Zealand SIS report talking about threats to the Jewish community and he was wrong about that.

“He has subsequently apologised about that but equally Minister Goldsmith has or is talking to him about those comments as well.”

‘Not elabiorating further’
RNZ approached the Human Rights Commission on Thursday afternoon for a response to Yasbek doubling down on her recollection Rainbow had talked about the supposed antisemitism of Afghan refugees in West Auckland.

“The Chief Commissioner will not be elaborating further about what was said in the meeting,” a spokesperson said.

“He’s happy to discuss the matter privately with the people involved,” a spokesperson said.

“Dr Rainbow acknowledges that what was said caused harm and offence and what matters most is the impact on communities. That is why he has apologised unreservedly and stands by his apology.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Part 2 of a two-part series on the one-year anniversary of the Taliban takeover. Read part 1: The world must not wash its hands of Afghanistan’s misery

The advent of Taliban rule in Afghanistan a year ago this month, after two decades under the more liberal, internationally supported Afghan National Government, threw the Afghan populace backward through a time warp.

The return to Taliban oppression has been most traumatic for women and girls, who suddenly find themselves in the equivalent of the Middle Ages again with respect to their rights and prospects.

Today’s Afghanistan is the only country in the world that bans high-school education for girls and restricts females from working, with very limited exceptions. This not only robs girls and women of their futures, but has a much larger impact on Afghan society and the country’s standing in the world.

• READ MORE:  The world must not wash its hands of Afghanistan’s misery
• Other reports on Afghanistan since the Taliban takover

A lot has changed since 2001
Guided by a traditionalist, nativist dogma, the Taliban pursued a similar policy when it previously ruled most of the country from 1996 to 2001. Since then, however, much has changed for Afghan women, especially in the cities.

Nationwide, female literacy doubled — although granted it is still low — and women were eager for education and new opportunities. Some went into politics and public service.

After the 2019 election, 27 percent of Afghan parliamentarians were women, the same percentage as in the current US Congress. Every ministry and government division had at least one woman at a senior decision-making level — I myself was one of them.

More than 300 female judges, 1000 prosecutors and 1500 defence lawyers worked in the government’s judicial system.

Although women were less well represented in business than in government, there were more than 17,000 women-owned businesses in the country. Women were also prominent in other professions including diplomacy, academia and teaching, journalism, and civil society organisations.

Public opinion polls showed that most Afghan men favoured these new roles for women.

Mixed signals
With the Taliban takeover, girls and women suddenly found themselves disempowered, without work and facing severe hardship.

At first, however, there was some hope that the “new” Taliban would act differently from before. Indeed, when we in the Afghan National Government were negotiating with the Taliban pursuant to the 2020 Doha Agreement calling for reconciliation, the Taliban negotiators indicated a willingness to accept a more liberal female role in society.

However, in contrast to the Afghan government’s mixed-gender negotiating team, our counterparts were all male.

Once in power, the Taliban initially sent some mixed signals. The Ministry of Women’s Affairs was closed. By September, schools for boys were reopened, but only elementary schools for girls.

Some women were kept in government offices only to be dismissed when men were trained to replace them.

In December, the Taliban did issue a decree that women could refuse marriage and inherit property, but otherwise nearly all their new measures have been repressive. As a result, the presence of women in Afghan society has been drastically curtailed, and in areas such as political life it is now zero.

The Commission on Human Rights was terminated. A May 7 decree forced women to cover their face in public, with threat of serious penalties.

Another on May 19 banned women from appearing in television plays and movies. Women journalists are required to cover their whole bodies, heads, and faces while reporting.

Deprived of women’s skills
There is no woman in the leadership and administration of the Taliban. None of the female judges, military officers, and women employees in the previous government have been allowed to return to their jobs.

Although a small number of women are allowed to work in the health, education, and journalism sectors, they cannot be effective or free to pursue their ambitions because of the severe restrictions imposed by the Taliban. This also affects aspirations; why should women even seek education if virtually no professional opportunities are available to them?

Although even male members of the mujahedeen have complained about the lack of opportunity for their women, the Taliban so far have privileged the most traditionalist elements of their base—even if they sometimes come up with excuses designed to hold out hope that they will change course later, like blaming the closure of girls’ schools on a supposed lack of female teachers.

The suffering from this is experienced not just at the individual and family level, but also by society as a whole, which is deprived of the skills of half its people.

Ironically, the Taliban also suffers, since it will never be accepted as a legitimate part of the international community if it denies basic rights and opportunities in education, employment, speech, and participation that are almost now universally regarded as fundamental rights of all mankind, including in most of the Islamic world.

It is hard to be optimistic about the future. But at the very least, foreign governments, the United Nations, and civil society organisations should continue to encourage Afghan women in any way possible and deny the Taliban government recognition and support beyond humanitarian assistance so long as it continues its brutal repression of women.

Dr Zakia Adeli was the Deputy Minister of Justice and a professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Kabul University before she was forced to leave the country following the Taliban takeover last August.

Māori, Pasifika, Asian, as well as disabled and bisexual employees, are disproportionately affected by bullying and harassment in workplaces in Aotearoa New Zealand, according to new research out today.

More than a third of respondents to a Human Rights Commission survey say they have experienced some form of harassment at work in the past five years.

In the report, Experiences of Workplace Bullying and Harassment in Aotearoa New Zealand, 39 percent of people said they had been racially harassed at work.

• LISTEN TO RNZ MORNING REPORT: ‘Healthcare seems to be the one that goes right across in terms of … bullying’
• New research shows high prevalence of workplace bullying and harassment

Also, 30 percent reported being sexually harassed and 20 percent bullied.

Māori, Pacific Peoples, and Asian workers, as well as disabled workers, and bisexual workers were disproportionately affected.

The nationwide study found that 24 percent of those who reported being mistreated, raised a formal complaint.

Researchers said the 2500 workers involved in the survey in May and June provided a representative picture of the population.

‘Disappointed’ in the harassment
Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner Saunoamaali’i Karanina Sumeo told RNZ Morning Report she was disappointed to see a “high prevalence” of racial harassment in the workplace.

She said the study looked at different industries.

“Healthcare seems to be the one that goes right across in terms of high prevalence of racial harassment, sexual harassment and bullying.

“In healthcare, you’ve got huge power dynamic. So the majority of people who perpetrate these behaviours occupy a more senior role to the victim. In those really hierarchical occupations, there’s a high risk of abuse of power.”

More young people reported being harassed in the hospitality and accommodation industry.

“It depends on the industry. It’s insane in terms for men [in] construction, manufacturing, communications … for women [it is] the health sector, and the public sector generally,” Sumeo said.

“This is real and it’s a shared suffering,” and it was important for people facing these circumstances to know that they were not exaggerating, she said.

‘No definition’ in laws
“We don’t have a definition of bullying in our laws at the moment and it’s really important that we have that. So myself, the Human Rights Commission, the unions and others are calling on government to ratify our ILO 190, which gives us the ability to identify and then we can allocate resources.”

She also called on the government to look at compensation laws “in terms of recognition and compensation and support to go to people who are suffering bullying and sexual harassment and racial harassment”.

Read the Experiences of Workplace Bullying and Harassment in Aotearoa New Zealand report.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Vanuatu leaders have taken the podium at the United Nations General Assembly to speak out against the military repression of anti-racism and independence demonstrations in West Papua, reports SBS news.

Addressing world leaders at the New York gathering – which has so far been a platform for powerful climate change activism – Vanuatu Prime Minister Charlot Salwai said his country “condemns, emphatically” the ongoing human rights abuses in West Papua.

He also lamented how some Pacific territories are yet to break the shackles of colonialism, citing France’s territories of New Caledonia and French Polynesia, as well as Indonesian-ruled West Papua, reports RNZ Pacific.

READ MORE: Vanuatu and Solomons raise Papua at UN rights council

His colleague, Foreign Minister Ralph Regenvanu said the current situation in West Papua “fits the criteria for genocide” and implored world leaders to address it.

“History will judge us and we have to be on the right side of history.”

He targeted Australia specifically, saying that its status as a Pacific country meant that it had responsibilities in the region.

“Australia’s got to step up substantially on the issue of West Papua, particularly because it’s on the Human Rights Council, it is a member of the Pacific Islands Forum.”

Among the Vanuatu delegation to the UN was exiled West Papua Independence Leader Benny Wenda. Along with other Pacific leaders, he met with the UN Secretary-General António Guterres to stress the importance of a UN visit to West Papua.

“So I hope that Indonesian government and President Jokowi will allow the UN High Commissioner to visit West Papua because this is a human rights crisis happening right now in West Papua,” he said.

According to Antara, Wenda was not permitted entry into the UN Assembly Hall along with the Vanuatu delegation as the UN rules stipulate that diplomats must be nationals of the country they are representing.

Indonesian authorities have blamed Wenda for inciting the West Papua unrest, including last week’s clashes which reportedly claimed the lives of at least 40 people.

According to The Guardian, testimonies of the clashes from eyewitnesses differ greatly from the official Indonesian account.

While authorities maintain that those killed were mostly non-Papuans who died as a result of the destruction caused by the Papuan demonstrators, one eyewitness said that police directly opened fire on protestors killing “16 to 20” of them.

Another witness said that children were among the dead, reports The Guardian.

The unrest has prompted further tension throughout the Wamena community, with non-native residents allegedly arming themselves with machetes to protect their properties.

Others have fled en masse to military bases where they are awaiting evacuation to safer parts of the region, reports ABC.

Vanuatu and Solomon Islands have raised the issue of human rights abuses against West Papuans at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The two governments made a statement which also noted that Indonesia had not yet given access to Papua for the UN Human Rights Commissioner.

The statement was delivered at the council’s latest session by Sumbue Antas from Vanuatu’s Permanent Mission to the UN.

READ MORE: FLNKS calls for West Papua self-determination, condemns violence

It followed weeks of protests and related unrest in Papua which left at least ten people dead and dozens of Papuans arrested.

The Melanesian countries told the council of their deep concern about ongoing rights violations against the freedoms of expression and assembly, as well as racial discrimination towards Papuans in the Indonesian-administered provinces of Papua and West Papua.

They echoed last week’s call from the UN human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, for Indonesia to protect the fundamental human rights of Papuans.

“Related to this agenda item, we are concerned about the Indonesian Government’s delay in confirming a time and date for the Human Rights Commissioner to conduct its visit to West Papua,” Antas said.

For years, the UN Human Rights Commissioner’s office has been trying to secure permission from Jakarta to visit Papua region.

Indonesia’s government has indicated that, for the time being, access to Papua would remain restricted because of the security situation created by the recent unrest, which was triggered by racist harassment of Papuan students in Java last month.

Six thousand extra Indonesian military and police personnel were deployed to Papua to respond to the widespread protests. The government also implemented restrictions on internet coverage in Papua, although this was gradually being eased as of last week.

However, even before the current surge in unrest, Pacific Islands countries voiced frustration that Jakarta had not responded sufficiently to repeated requests by the UN Commissioner for access to Papua.

At the recent 2019 Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Summit in Tuvalu, regional countries called on both Indonesia and the UN Commissioner to finalise the timing of a visit to West Papua, and to submit an evidence-based report on the situation before the next summit in 2020.

“We call on the High Commissioner and the Government of Indonesia to expedite this arrangement so an assessment on the current situation is made, and a report can be submitted to the Human Rights Council for its consideration,” Antas said.

• This article is published under the Pacific Media Centre’s content partnership with Radio New Zealand. 

Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) advocacy head Muhammad Isnur has accused retired Major-General Kivlan Zen and Presidium 313 member Rahmat Himran of being behind the attack on the LBH Jakarta offices.

He bases this on the names Kivlan and Himran which have appeared in social media in relation to the attack.

READ MORE: ‘Fake PKI news behind anti-communist chaos’

“The first is Rahmat Himran, I don’t know who he is but apparently he is with the Presidium 313, in several press releases and hoaxes (false news reports) in the media, his name has been cited as the one responsible, I don’t know if the police have arrested him or not”, said Isnur at the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) offices on Monday.

Meanwhile, Isnur cites Kivlan Zen because his name was mentioned in an online news website.

In the article, Zen was mentioned as chairing a coordinating meeting on closing down the “Indonesian Communist Party” (PKI) meeting at YLBHI.

“The second name was Kivlan Zen, this was the first name that emerged when the news website Public News reported that he was chairing a coordination meeting on closing down the [alleged] PKI seminar, the police must investigate this,” said Isnur.

Zen has not yet been able to confirm or deny Isnur’s statement and Zen’s attorney Krist Ibnu was unable to comment any further about Isnur’s allegations.

Opposed to PKI
Ibnu, however, confirmed that Zen had indeed been moved to oppose the reemergence of the PKI.

“Now Pak Kivlan has indeed often spoken out opposing the PKI issue hasn’t he, because the PKI’s teachings have been banned. Pak Kivlan has been moved in his heart as a former fighter, so yes it quite legitimate that he opposes it,” said Ibnu when contacted.

“Now with regard to whether or not Pak Kivlan was behind the action last night I don’t really know, but we admit that Pak Kivlan has often spoken out opposing the PKI.

“Only, there have been those that have been candid about it and those that have done it on the sly, it’s not just Pak Kivlan,” he added.

In relation to the siege on the YLBHI offices, Isnur also linked this with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo statement about “clobbering the PKI”.

According to Isnur, Jokowi’s statement is open to misuse by certain groups as a justification to carry out such attacks.

Background
Presidium 313 refers to the organising body that was behind the so-called 313 rally in Jakarta against former Jakarta governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama on March 31 calling for him to be jailed for alleged blasphemy.

Retired Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad, Green Berets) commander Major-General Kivlan Zen is as a hardline general best known for his bizarre claims about a PKI resurgence and was a staunch supporter of Gerindra Party chairman Prabowo Subianto during the 2014 presidential election. In December 2016, following the mass protests against Ahok, Zen was arrested and charged with treason for allegedly attempting to overthrow the Widodo government.

Speaking before 1500 TNI soldiers in Riau on May 19, Widodo said that the government would not stay silent in confronting movements that undermine the Constitution and the state ideology of Pancasila and this also applied to groups that followed communism. “Yes, we will clobber them, we will stamp them out, this is already clear. Don’t question this again. Don’t question this again. The legal umbrella is clear, the TAP MPRS,” said Widodo, referring to a 1966 decree banning the Indonesian Communist Party.

Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service. The original title of the article was “LBH Tuding Kivlan Zen Terlibat dalam Aksi Pengepungan Kantor”.

• ‘We’ll clobber them, stamp them out’

United Nations Rapporteur Agnes Callamard has slammed the P1000 (NZ$26) budget that the House of Representatives voted to give the Philippine Commission on Human Rights (CHR) for 2018.

Callamard has explained in an email to Rappler that the CHR “is a crucial institution for the Philippines: for human rights protection, the rule of law, accountability”.

“It cannot deliver on its mandate without an appropriate budget, particularly at a time when it is confronted with allegations of massive human rights violations throughout the country, and including, but not only, in the context of the ill-advised, destructive ‘war on drugs,'” Callamard said.

READ MORE: Give CHR zero budget if it cannot be abolished – Alvarez

“The people of the Philippines deserve a strong independent human rights institution able to monitor, investigate, and report on human rights violations, protect victims and their families, and hold the powerful to account for their abuses of international human rights standards,” she said.

“Instead they are getting a ‘war on drugs’ which, by the President’s own account, has failed to curtail addiction rates, while creating a climate of fear and insecurity, feeding impunity, and undermining the constitutional fabric of the country. If the Philippine Congress is looking for public money being wasted, damaging and hurting the Philippine society, this is it,” the UN rapporteur said.

Earlier, in a tweet, Callamard said of the lawmakers’ move: “Reprehensible and unconscionable”.

Callamard is the UN’s Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, connected with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

She was the UN expert invited by President Rodrigo Duterte to probe the killings in the Philippines, provided that she engages Duterte in a debate – a condition that she has refused.

Callamard made her statement after the House of Representatives voted 119-32 to allocate only P1000 for the CHR in 2018.

In contrast, the House earlier approved a P900-million ($18-million) budget for Oplan Double Barrel, the anti-drug campaign of the Philippine National Police.

The P1000 budget for the CHR is not final, however, as it has to go through the Senate too for another round of deliberations. In any case, it already drew flak from Filipinos who described it as an “act of tyranny”.

The House is dominated by allies of Duterte, who has repeatedly slammed the CHR for questioning the killings in his war on drugs.

More than 14,100 people have been killed in both police operations and vigilante-style killings since Duterte began his drug war in July 2016.

• More Philippines stories

By TJ Aumua in Auckland

Former Māori party co-leader Sir Pita Sharples described te reo Māori as being on “life support” at a Human Rights Commission forum this month.

He said he would lead an initiative of revitalising the Māori language and would hope to encourage the Government in supporting the notion, as a fundamental right in the United Nations Declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

“I am determined this year to lead a charge with the Declaration and with the Treaty of Waitangi and for Government to be meaningfully supportive of the growth of te reo Māori in New Zealand.”

‘forbidden’

Sharples talked about his parents who, in the past, were forbidden to talk te reo Māori in New Zealand.

As a result “our language was killed in one generation”.

He told the Pacific Media Centre an environment that would support the learning of the language and its use in everyday conversation needs to be established in New Zealand.

“When our kids go to the mall, they talk Māori the whole time. But the world around them doesn’t support what they are doing.”

Sharples also emphasised that New Zealand media have to be trained in Māori pronunciation in order to foster an environment that encourages and respects te reo.

Indigenous law

Expert member on the UN Permanent Forum of Indigenous Issues Valmaine Toki recommended mandatory indigenous law studies in New Zealand as part of implementing legal understanding of the UNDRIP.

She also said constitutional recognition of the Declaration in New Zealand is key to reflecting indigenous rights.

Listen to the full audio story:

Traditional knowledge

Toki also touched on how indigenous knowledge is key to solving Pacific climate change.

“The Pacific is really vital and key at the moment because of climate change-it’s a huge issue. And traditional knowledge cuts right across that.”

Listen to the interview with Valmaine Toki:

Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Political Affairs, Law and Security Luhut Binsar Padjaitan says the government has resolved to settle human rights cases “in not too long time”.

“We are studying ways to settle all human rights cases in Indonesia. In Papua there are 16 cases. President Joko Widodo has passed order to settle the cases as soon as possible,” Luhut said in Jakarta.

The government will reopen all cases and ask all, including the Human Rights Commission and Papua community leaders, to contribute to finding a solution to the problem openly, he said.

“If possible this year. Settlement of human rights cases must be transparent mainly through peaceful approaches,” he said.

He said the government was trying to work out a plan to provide scholarship for Papua students to study various technologies abroad.

The regional administrations would be asked for their role in the development Papua to prevent making a similar mistake when granting Freeport the contract with Papua not given enough share of the benefit from their land.

Freeport has a large gold and copper mining concession in Papua.

Luhut said the government welcomes plan of the regional administration of Papua to build an industrial estate in Memberamo.