On the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples

As we commemorate the  International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, we honour the strength, resilience, and rights of Indigenous communities around the world — including those in West Papua, whose voices have been silenced for far too long.

We are reminded of an urgent truth: Indigenous Peoples of West Papua remain rightful custodians of their own land and deserve the freedom to determine their own destiny.

Between April and June 2025, Prabowo Subianto who was indicted for war crimes against humanity in Timor Leste and West Papua, is now the President of Indonesia, has declared West Papua an armed conflict zone and deployed a sharp escalation in militarized operations across West Papua’s central highlands. In the Puncak Regency, entire villages were burned. In Intan Jaya, dozens of indigenous villagers were reportedly killed, disappeared, tortured, and detained during a single raid.

These are not isolated incidents. They form a pattern of systematic repression and criminalization targeting Indigenous identity, peaceful assembly, expression, and the very presence of land and right defenders. It is a deliberate strategy of ethnic cleansing. A slow-motion genocide unfolding under global silence.

Meanwhile, this violence does not only harm the bodies, but it scars their ancestral lands.

We witness the rapid destruction of West Papua’s forests. Between 2023 and 2024, primary forest loss surged 10 percent, reaching 25,300 hectares cleared in total. The Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate (MIFEE) alone covers 3 million hectares in South Papua. 

Within the broader National Strategic Project or PSN, ten key sites have been earmarked for investment under Prabowo’s presidency. So far, he has allowed civil society organisations limited access to view the food security initiative in Merauke and the nickel project in Raja Ampat. However, many other project details remain undisclosed.

Regarding PSN Merauke Food Estate, at least 5 million hectares of ancestral land will be replaced by sugarcane and bioethanol fuel production. At least one million hectares for rice fields.

This project gravely violates the principle of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent, a fundamental right of Indigenous Peoples. An estimated 50,000 Indigenous Peoples across 40 villages within the PSN Merauke Food Estate area have been displaced, robbed of lands, livelihoods, and natural habitat. While displacing West Papuans, hundreds of thousands of Indonesian workers transmigrate to West Papua in search of work.

Those forests are more than trees. They sustain Indigenous lifeways, water systems, food sovereignty, and cultural heritage.

This is not incidental negligence. These extractive mega‑projects, oil palm expansion, mining, logging, and government-backed infrastructures are being done without free, prior and informed consent. Nor under meaningful accountability.

The 2025 IDWIP theme "Indigenous Peoples and AI: Defending Rights, Shaping Futures" reminds us of the power of technology in the fight for justice. Its relevance in showing satellite data to track deforestation in real time in West Papua and rights abuses are now available online. 

But the reality remains:

• International media and observers are blocked from visiting and 

• information about West Papua remains closed down from global scrutiny.

• Digital censorship and surveillance continue to suppress Papuan voices online and offline.

Thus we urge everyone to join us in calling upon the international community to act in solidarity:

• Demand that the Indonesian government stop state militarization and abusive raids in West Papua, 

• Call for a UN-mandated independent investigation and an accountability mechanism for violations in West Papua.

• Recognise Indigenous Peoples of West Papuas’ right to self‑determination under international law and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to choose their own political, economic, and cultural path.

• Protect Indigenous land rights, and hold governments and corporations to account for illegal deforestation, land grabbing and displacement.

• Support open access to information and international monitoring in West Papua.

West Papua is not only a site of resistance but also a frontline of modern-day colonialism, extractivism, and militarized state violence—mirroring global systems of oppression faced by Indigenous Peoples and oppressed people everywhere.

Their call for freedom is also our call for freedom. On this International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, let us celebrate not just their existence, but honor their resistance, defend their rights, and carry their hope forward.

Papua Merdeka!