Islami Adisubrata, Wamena, Jubi – Papua Customary Council (DAP) commemorated the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples of 9 August 2020 by organising public prayer at Karma football square of DAP Hubula Office located in Wesaput Sub-district on Monday (10/8/2020).
The council also organised a petition to decline the extension of autonomy policy. The Chairman of Papua Customary Council elected through the extraordinary consensus, Dominikus Sorabut, stated two points marked in this commemoration day, namely the Covid-19 pandemic and human rights violations in Papua.
"This momentum combines two points of concern. They are mainly food security of indigenous peoples that are being threatened amid the Covid-19 pandemic and severe human rights violations against indigenous Papuans," he said.
According to him, regarding their rejection over the Special Autonomy, DAP and the indigenous community would not organise demonstrations, but create a petition and distribute it to all customary territories. This petition is a form of public consultation for the government to assess what people need, which is the evaluation of Special Autonomy policy.
"It has never been evaluated yet but forced to amend for an extension. As such, we cannot categorise it as Special Autonomy since the Special Autonomy should belong to the indigenous peoples. Therefore, this petition will be compiled by a working committee. If the targeted signatures from seven customary areas have been collected, the working committee would decide the next step," he said.
Regarding the world's indigenous peoples, Article 1 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of International Indigenous Peoples acknowledges that indigenous peoples have rights to collectively or individually pursue all human rights and fundamental freedoms recognised in the UN Charter, the Charter of Human Rights and the Charter of International Human Rights Law.
"The awareness of Papuan indigenous peoples begin in the implementation of the protection of their basic rights over natural resources and their identity as part of the world's indigenous peoples." The statement was declared by the Head of Manokwari Legal Aid Research and Development Institute (LP3BH), Yan Warinussy, in a release received by Jubi on Monday (9/8/2020) in Jayapura. (*)