The Diplomacy of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua in Internationalizing Human Rights Issues in Papua: A Transnational Advocacy Network Perspective
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52690/jswse.v7i3.1558Keywords:
Non-State Diplomacy, Pacific Islands Forum, Papua Human Rights, Transnational Advocacy NetworkAbstract
This study examines how the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) internationalizes human rights issues in Papua through transnational advocacy. Despite Indonesia's sovereignty over Papua, the ULMWP has successfully shifted the Papua issue from a domestic concern to a regional and international agenda, particularly within Pacific multilateral forums. Using a qualitative descriptive-analytical method grounded in Keck and Sikkink's Transnational Advocacy Network (TAN) theory, this study analyzes primary data from interviews with diaspora figures and secondary data from organizational documents, media reports, and diplomatic communiqués. The findings reveal that the ULMWP employs four TAN strategies: (1) information politics through documentation of alleged human rights violations (e.g., The Nduga Conflict report) and social media dissemination; (2) symbolic politics by leveraging Melanesian identity and cultural performances to build solidarity with Māori and Aboriginal communities; (3) leverage politics by engaging regional actors such as the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) and Australian parliamentarians to exert moral pressure; and (4) accountability politics by demanding Indonesia comply with international human rights commitments. These strategies have successfully institutionalized the Papua issue within PIF communiqués and gained explicit state support from Vanuatu. However, the study finds that transnational advocacy has produced only moral and reputational pressure, not substantive Indonesian policy change on Papua's political status. This study contributes to the literature on non-state diplomacy, human rights advocacy, and Pacific regional politics, while also highlighting the limits of TAN in influencing sovereign states' core security policies.
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