Physical, Cultural and Environmental Destruction in West Papua: Re-examining the UN Genocide Convention

Indonesia's colonisation of West Papua has resulted in the killing of an estimated 500,000 indigenous people in the last fifty years, presenting a necessity to re-examine the UN Genocide Convention for its inability to protect cultural minorities. This socio-legal human rights research project uses an interdisciplinary approach to explore shortcomings in the Convention's legal definition of genocide that has resulted in its failure to protect the indigenous people of West Papua. Interacting with history, sociology, human rights law and green criminology, the project utilises a lens inspired by the latest in genocide research to analyse the case study of West Papua. This investigation will; engage with the latest legal and theoretical debates surrounding the definition of genocide, help to examine the current effectiveness of the Convention, provide an essential opportunity to reimagine the Convention, provide invaluable information on Indonesia's colonisation of West Papua. The legal definition of genocide focusses solely on the physicality of genocide. However, recent scholarship has demonstrated that the term's creator, Raphael Lemkin, was more concerned with the loss of culture - 'the shrines of the soul of a nation' - than with physical killing, since it is culture that animates the 'genos' in his concept of genocide. In doing so, the field of genocide studies has been reinvigorated through interdisciplinary research that places culture at the centre of genocide studies, addressing what is at stake for cultural minorities whose culture is destroyed - the very fabric of their social existence. Subsequently, as many indigenous groups present a cultural relationship to land, the concept of ecocide has been introduced to genocide studies, developing the idea that environmental destruction can cause an "ecologically induced genocide" on these groups. Therefore, West Papua will be analysed using this culturally-centred, ecologically-engaged genocide lens for the first time to provide exclusive insights into this under-researched case study, our understanding of genocide, and how the Convention can be revised. West Papua provides a unique case study to analyse the shortcomings of the Convention. It is one of the most culturally and ecologically diverse regions in the world with 250 indigenous groups and is resource-rich with the world's largest gold and second-largest copper mine. Additionally, West Papua has strongly advocated for its right to self-determination and presented 1.8 million signatures to the UN in 2017, while Indonesia has not yet ratified the Convention. Furthermore, the occupation of West Papua continues to result in reports of human rights abuses including chemical weapons attacks, highlighting the urgent need and relevance of this project. No other study applies this lens within West Papua, thus, the project is fundamental in providing critical observations about the nexus between culture, the environment and genocide, and how this can impact the law of genocide. The project will answer the following research questions; In what way does the Convention fail to protect cultural minorities? How can a culturally-centred, ecologically-engaged genocide lens be useful to understand the effects of Indonesian colonisation on the indigenous people of West Papua? What would a culturally-centred, ecologically-engaged convention look like? To answer these questions the project will involve an extensive literature review of the legal and theoretical concepts of genocide to situate the lens and undertake semi-structured interviews with indigenous West Papuans to understand the impact of cultural and environmental destruction. This will enable the project to understand the current shortcomings of the Convention, analyse how this genocide lens could be used and imagine what an alternative convention could look like.