{"id":2219,"date":"2025-04-08T13:02:36","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T13:02:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/?p=2219"},"modified":"2025-04-08T13:04:37","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T13:04:37","slug":"uk-government-reaffirms-support-for-un-visit-to-west-papua","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/?p=2219","title":{"rendered":"UK Government reaffirms support for UN visit to West Papua"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

April 4, 2025 in News<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The British government restated its commitment<\/a> to a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights visit to West Papua on Tuesday 2nd April, after being questioned over its 2024 critical minerals agreement with Indonesia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Oral Question was asked by Alex Sobel, MP for Leeds Central and Headingley and Chair of the International Parliamentarians for West Papua (IPWP). In an historic moment witnessed by ULMWP Interim President Benny Wenda and a representative of the West Papua Council of Churches (WPCC), Mr Sobel asked the following of Indo-Pacific Minister Catherine West:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn 2018, President Joko Widodo promised the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights that he would be allowed to visit West Papua. No visit has yet been facilitated by Indonesia, although two High Commissioners have been and gone. Without such a visit, it is impossible to assess the real human rights situation. Will the Minister ensure that the UK does not engage in critical minerals extraction in West Papua before such a visit takes place?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Ms West, herself an IPWP signatory, reaffirmed the UK\u2019s support for the visit in her answer:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe UK continues to support the visit by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and, through initiatives such as the voluntary principles on security and human rights, and the UK-Indonesia critical minerals MOU\u2014signed off by you, Madam Deputy Speaker\u2014the Government promote best practice on sustainability and respect for human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UN visit has been demanded by more than 110 member states, including all member states of the Pacific Islands Forum<\/a> (PIF), the Organisation of African, Caribbean, and Pacific States<\/a> (OACPS), the European Commission<\/a>, and individual nations including Spain and the Netherlands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2024 UK-Indonesia critical minerals deal risks inflaming ecocide and militarisation in occupied West Papua. Indonesia is the world\u2019s largest nickel producer, and West Papua contains some of its most significant nickel sities, including the Gag Island project in Raja Ampat, Indonesia\u2019s third or fourth-largest nickel mine, and the Siduarsi nickel-cobalt project, west of Jayapura. If West Papua is not excluded from the deal, the UK will ensure its complicity in green colonialism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Oral Question is part of an increase in Parliamentary scrutiny of Indonesia\u2019s occupation of West Papua, with a House of Lords debate<\/a>, APPG meeting<\/a>, and written question all having taken place in recent months.<\/p>\n\n\n

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April 4, 2025 in News The British government restated its commitment to a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights visit to West Papua on Tuesday 2nd April, after being questioned over its 2024 critical minerals agreement with Indonesia. The Oral Question was asked by Alex Sobel, MP for Leeds Central and Headingley and Chair of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2220,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89,1,97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headline-news","category-uncategorized","category-united-kingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2219"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2221,"href":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2219\/revisions\/2221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infopapua.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}