The reality of the social, economic, cultural and political problems in Papua has undergone a significant shift after the implementation of the Papua Special Autonomy Act of 2001. However, change does not always entail prosperity for the indigenous people, especially the women. The preliminary results of the Papua ad hoc team in 2007 show that Papuan women are victims of multi-layered violence and discrimination. Their vulnerability is due to their low level education, their susceptibility to domestic violence, the low level of health status including exposure to HIV/AIDS, the low access of indigenous women to economic activities, and the discrimination against women and children in the traditional values and norms. The violence against women also occurs in the context of exploitation of natural resources and environmental destruction, confiscation of indigenous lands, logging industries and the security approach taken by the government to quell dissenters. Those are the factors that serve as the reason for the high number of sexual assaults against young indigenous women.

In order to build a comprehensive support towards the fulfillment of women’s human rights in Papua, in 2008 to 2009, Komnas Perempuan focused itself to the program of developing the initiatives and capacity of the indigenous people to improve, protect and uphold the women’s human rights across Papua land.

Specifically, the strategy developed by Komnas Perempuan is to build a cooperative movement and support towards the Women Working Group in the Papuan People Assembly in carrying out its mandate, and by making it more effective in building a cooperation with women’s organization in Papua, building a system to defend the women’s human rights in Papua, and supporting the groundbreaking effort towards a horizontal-and-vertical reconciliation in Papua. Thus, in 2008, Komnas Perempuan focused itself to the three profound activities:

• The capacity building workshop for the Women Working Group in the Papuan People Assembly to make a better use of the constitutional provisions in developing mechanism for the fulfillment of the women’s human rights in Papua.
• Seminar and workshop to formulate an effective mechanism and structure for the Women Working Group in the Papuan People Assembly, in support of the Papuan women’s organizations.
• The national dialogue on the reality and the challenge of guaranteeing the women’s human rights in Papua, with the governmental agencies and national level CSOs, to build a national support for the fulfillment of the women’s human rights in Papua.

As the follow up, in 2009, Komnas Perempuan facilitated the capacity building efforts for organizations defending women’s human rights in Papua. By this effort, it is hoped that the organizations will be capable of building inter-institutional cooperation (between state, traditional and religious ones) for the benefit of women’s human rights in Papua, especially regarding the documentation of the violence against women and the violation of the women’s human rights in Papua. These documentation efforts were to be conducted through the development of the concepts and instruments for that purpose. To that end, the primary activities conducted were:

1. The training of documentation on the violation of the women’s human rights in Papua;
2. The documentation by local documenters on the violation of the women’s human rights in Papua;
3. The reporting and publication on the documentation result.

The expected outcome is the local woman activists who are capable of documenting the women’s human rights in Papua, and the existence of a comprehensive report on the status of violence and violation against women’s human rights in Papua.

The target of this program is the CSOs defending the women’s human rights in Papua.

Agenda for the Papua, November 2008-2009.

Strategic Goals:

• The formulation of an effective and sustainable communication mechanism and synergic cooperation between institutions, both public and state, to eliminate all forms of violence and discrimination against women.

Schedule

26 November 2008

January 2009

February 2009

February-March 2009

April 2009

April-June 2009

July  2009

August-September 2009

October 2009