An official Dutch delegation headed by the human rights ambassador Mr. Kees Van Baar visited Jayapura on 4 May 2017. During his short term visit, the Ambassador met with the Governor of the Papua Province and members of the Papuan provincial parliament. The delegation also paid a short visit to the Community School of Justice in the village Nimbokrang, where he talked with community members and school participants.
The major goal of the Papua visit was to receive first hand information about the human rights situation in West Papua from local stakeholders. Kees van Baar stated in an interview with journalists of the local news outlet Jubi that his visit was related to the upcoming Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Indonesia: “Next week, the Netherlands will have the opportunity to respond to Indonesia’s national report at the UPR of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva. This is also one of the reasons for the delegation’s visit to Papua.”
Papuan governor Lukas Enembe and the head of the provincial parliament Yunus Wonda both independently stated in public interviews that the discussions with the Dutch human rights ambassador were focused on the latest improvements in the settlement of human rights violations in Papua, as well as the situation of democracy and media freedom for foreign journalists in the province. Both government officials confirmed that human rights violations in Papua are not being processed by human rights courts. Wonda also expressed his concern over the ongoing restrictions on media freedom for foreign journalists to the delegation.
