The Universal Periodic Review and West Papua: Beyond Invisibility?

Major human rights violations are experienced by the people of West Papua, the easternmost part of Indonesia, on an almost daily basis. Some commentators even describe the situation as a ‘slow genocide.’ Yet the plight of the people of West Papua has been almost invisible at the international level. Few states have championed the cause of the West Papuans directly with Indonesia, and international human rights monitoring bodies have largely failed to hold Indonesia to account for the atrocities committed in West Papua. This article examines the actions of the United Nations Human Rights Council on West Papua, focusing on the extent to which the West Papua situation has been addressed during the four cycles of Indonesia’s universal periodic review. Across the four cycles of the universal periodic review, only a small number of states have made a small number of recommendations to Indonesia on the West Papua situation. Encouragingly, the most recent review of Indonesia in 2022 appears to reflect growing internationalisation of the West Papua issue. However, the wider context of claims for self-determination and independence in West Papua, and the gravity of the human rights violations, appears to shackle the upr mechanism such that it fails to fully engage with the human rights challenges in West Papua. For the people of West Papua, this failure is perilous.