Our West Papua programme aims to improve human rights and human security in West Papua by awareness raising and undertaking international advocacy on the severe political, economic, social and environmental problems facing the Papuan people. It also seeks to build the capacity of local organisations.

Our West Papua projects are concerned with the promotion of transitional justice in West Papua and the establishment of a web portal entitled ‘Initiative for Peace and Human Security in Papua’. This will provide an independent gateway to information and analysis on issues affecting peace and human security in Papua and a tool for international advocacy.

The programme also encompasses our general advocacy on Papua, which enables us to respond to ongoing developments on the ground and issues of concern.

Our transitional justice programme aims to promote greater accountability for human rights violations in Indonesia and the establishment of more effective justice mechanisms. It also seeks to build the capacity of local organisations.
Our transitional justice projects are concerned with:

• Achieving accountability and justice for the victims of the crimes against humanity that accompanied former President Suharto’s rise to power in 1965/66.
• Achieving accountability for gross violations of human rights in East Timor.
• Contributing to protecting and promoting the rights of human rights defenders with a special focus on the murder of the leading HRD, Munir

We are documenting the history of TAPOL so that our work since 1973 and the lessons learned can live on into the future. The story of the organisation will be introduced by our founder Carmel Budiardjo and, with the help of interviews with key players, will be described in terms of the key human rights issues we have addressed, including: Political Prisoners/1965; East Timor; West Papua; Aceh; and Britain and Indonesia.

If you have a particular memory of TAPOL or anecdote that you would like to share with us, please email us at barbara.patilla@tapol.org.

In 2009, we completed a project on the Indonesian elections which saw a strong performance by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Partai Demokrat in the April Parliamentary elections and a decisive victory by the President himself in July’s Presidential elections. A number of articles and news digests examine what the outcome could mean for Indoneisia’s democratic transition