1 Jul 2016

PIANGO applauds speech on West Papua

4:22 pm on 1 July 2016
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Photo: UN

A grouping of the region's NGOs says a top United Nations official must be commended for highlighting the plight of West Papuans.

Last week the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, Maina Kiai, brought up West Papua at the at a Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva.

The director of the Pacific Islands Association of NGOs, Emele Duituturaga, says Mr Kiai's speech highlighted the reality of West Papuans' struggles with demographic and socio-economic changes under Indonesian rule.

She says Mr Kiai was not afraid to illustrate ongoing discrimination, and his act should be applauded.

Ms Duituturanga says more people are speaking up against Indonesia's rule of West Papua, and its peoples quest for self-determination.

PIANGO says the development has fueled its resolve to see Pacific leaders implement a proposal to call for UN intervention in West Papua.