International Development

Political and Constitutional Conflict in the West Papua Region of Indonesia

This policy brief, published in conjunction with the University of Warwick Politics of Papua Project, presents 14 recommendations for the United Kingdom and the international community to help bring an end to the political and constitutional conflict in the West Papua Region of Indonesia. 

Since West Papua was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969, it has been de facto controlled by the Indonesian military, and Papuans have been subject to a number of human rights violations, including arrests for peaceful protests against Indonesian rule. Government restrictions have been imposed on access to West Papua by the foreign media, international observers, and NGOs, and a number of political prisoners remain behind bars.

The policy brief, written by a team of experts from the University of Warwick and elsewhere, makes a series of recommendations for British Parliamentarians and the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, including:

  • the release of all political prisoners in West Papua;
  • free access of media, NGOs, foreign academics, and foreign observers in West Papua;
  • an end to all UK military training and equipment to Indonesian military and police forces until reliable mechanisms are put in place to verify their adherence to human rights standards; and
  • measures to encourage key Indonesian political and economic actors to engage in an open discussion to peacefully resolve the situation in West Papua.

The policy brief is drawn from a full-length report published by the University of Warwick Politics of Papua Project, which was presented in Parliament earlier this year.

Preserving Parliamentary Power in Pakistan

Dr Matthew J. Nelson, Reader in Politics, School of Oriental and African Studies

On Wednesday 5 August, the Pakistan Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in the case of District Bar Association (Rawalpindi) vs. Federation of Pakistan (2015). Unfortunately, this judgment has been interpreted as enhancing the power of the Pakistan Army in the context of an intensifying but still poorly defined war on terrorism.

The Prospects for Law and Justice Priorities in the Post-2015 International Development Agenda

Submitted by phil on Tue, 22 Oct 2013 - 9:26am

Michael Woolcock, Lead Social Development Specialist at the World Bank and Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard University, opens this panel debate with a note of cautious optimism on the prospects for the UN Post-2015 Development Agenda, arguing that, “as aspirational statements for the international community to strive to fulfil over the period 2000-2015, and as a way of trying to educate the world as a whole as to the aims of the development community, they have been a broad success”.