Melanesian countries are pushing Indonesia to facilitate a long-requested visit to West Papua by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights or have its membership in their regional bloc reviewed.

A request for the visit was made by Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) countries back in 2019, but it has still not gone ahead, despite ongoing human rights violations in the Indonesian-ruled Papua region, known internationally as West Papua.

Frustration has built up among the Melanesian countries in the intervening years that Jakarta has not yet allowed the visit to take place.

Now the members of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) say that if a visit by the Commissioner’s office is not facilitated by Indonesia in order for a report on human rights issues in West Papua to be produced by their next summit in 2027, then Indonesia’s associate member status in the MSG will be reviewed.

The full members of the MSG are: Papua New Guinea, FIji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia’s FLNKS Kanak independence movement. The United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) has observer status at the MSG, and Indonesia has associate member status.

The MSG has issued a statement from the current PIF leaders summit in Palau, saying Melanesian leaders “urged continued engagement with Indonesia to facilitate access by the end of Indonesia’s term as President of the Human Rights Council on 31 December 2026”.

MSG members requested the bloc’s current chair, Fiji, to write to Indonesia to allow the visit of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to West Papua to produce a report on human rights issues in Papua, and to have the report delivered for consideration at the next MSG summit in 2027.

2027 MSG Summit review
Leaders “affirmed that if these actions are not undertaken the Associate Member status shall be reviewed accordingly at the next MSG Summit in 2027”.

They also requested MSG member country embassies in Jakarta to “support appropriate follow-up and engagement on this matter”.

The members are also considering a proposal for MSG leaders to meet Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York last this month.

Since taking office last year, Prabowo has overseen an increase in Indonesian military deployments to West Papua where a long-running conflict with the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) has escalated in recent months, causing mass displacement of some Papua village communities in the High Papua region.