Papuan Human Rights Advocacy Association to Hold International Conference

People from the Dani tribe cook vegetables and sweet potatoes in the traditional way, wrapping them in banana leaves and cooking them using hot stones over a fire pit.

Bogor, West Java, MINA – The Association of Advocacy for Policies and Human Rights (PAK-HAM) of Papua will hold an international conference on human rights on the protection and preservation of natural resources based on local wisdoms.

“It is planned that the conference will be held in March, 2018, in Bali,” Antara News reported, citing Chairman of the Organizing Committee, Uten Sutendy, as saying in Puncak, Bogor District, West Java.

He stated that the committee will invite participants from neighboring and fellow countries, including those who are concerned over the preservation and exploitation of natural resource; spiritual leaders from Tibet, Japan, and Brazil; as well as those representing the largest religion of Islam and Christian.

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“We are thinking of inviting Muhammad Yunus as he has been successfully using the local wisdom of Bangladesh as the basis to develop the country, especially in the economic sector, for which he had won the Noble Prize too,” Uten noted.

According to him, local wisdoms in Indonesia are the capital of the nation and the world. “We want these wisdoms to be a paradigm of developmental value for the country,” he remarked.

He added that at present, natural resources around the world have been exploited by liberalism, capitalism, and socialism-communism, whereas Indonesia has local wisdoms that can be applied to preserve and maintain the resources.

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“The indigenous people in Papua and the Baduy tribe in Serang and Banten are the two models of traditional community in which people still hold and apply their local wisdoms to protect and sustain their lands,” Uten revealed.

PAK-HAM Papua is headquartered in Jayapura, Papua Province. Its special missions include mapping the customary lands, investigating and solving violence on human rights in Papua through cooperation with the government, as well as speeding up the development program in the easternmost province of Indonesia. (T/RS5/RS1)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)