wfn.org | WCC NEWS: Papua focus of WCC at UNCHR 61st session

["WCC Media" <Media@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches - News Release
Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 18/03/2005

INDONESIAN PROVINCE OF PAPUA MAIN FOCUS OF WCC WORK AT 2005 UNCHR SESSION

The economic, social and cultural rights of the Papuan people will be the
main focus of the World Council of Churches' (WCC) involvement in this
year's 61st session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
(UNCHR).

As in previous years, the WCC is assisting human rights representatives
from the South to attend the 12 March-22 April session. The WCC-accredited
delegations this year will be from Papua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Nepal,
Guatemala and Colombia.

The WCC is presenting a written submission to the UNCHR under agenda item
10 (on socio-economic and cultural rights).

In it the WCC asks the commission to inform the government of Indonesia
that "its present measures to divide the province [of Papua] against the
wishes of the people can only lead* to further denial of their socio-economic and cultural rights."

The WCC also asks the commission to urge the government "to ensure that
the province of Papua gets a just share of the proceeds earned from the
exploitation of its abundant natural resources".

The WCC is co-signatory of a second written submission on the civil and
political rights of the Papuan people that makes particular reference to a
Special Autonomy Law for the Indonesian province.

A study on the economic, social and cultural rights of the Papuan people
commissioned by the German churches with the WCC, and undertaken by Papuan
academics and human rights defenders, will also be released during the
time of the Commission and presented in a public event scheduled for
Thursday, 31 March. Speakers will include notable religious leaders from
Papua (more details will be available later next week).

>From 2-4 April, representatives of faith-based bodies attending the 61st
session, including the WCC, will meet to strategize together on the human
rights of the Papuan people.

On 6 April, the WCC has convened a meeting of ecumenical partners to
address the question of the reform of the UNHRC itself.

More information on WCC work at the 61st session of the UN Commission on
Human Rights is available at:
http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/international/chr2005.html

Additional information: Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363
media@wcc-coe.org

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The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 347, in
more than 110 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian
traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but works
cooperatively with the WCC. The highest governing body is the assembly,
which meets approximately every seven years. The WCC was formally
inaugurated in 1948 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its staff is headed by
general secretary Samuel Kobia from the Methodist church in Kenya.