This document is a fully referenced exposé of:
i) the twenty-year-period in West Papua between 1942 and 1962, which includes the Pacific War (1942–44) and the nation’s years as a UN Non-Self-Governing Territory between 1950 and 1962;
ii) a forensic analysis of the legal manoeuvring by Indonesia, the United States and United Nations to turn the Non-Self-Governing Territory into an Indonesian colony in 1962;
iii) the West Papuans program since 2014 to be registered on the UN Decolonisation List, as UN Sec-General Dag Hammarskjöld had planned to do in 1961; and
iv) Q&A rebuttal of the claims Indonesia used to takeover the 459,412 kms2 of richly resourced Melanesian land.
Jacob, as Spokesperson for the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), first presented this paper as ‘West Papua 1942 to 2019: the legals, the politics, and the only way forward’ on 28 November 2019 at the Pacific Institute, Australian National University.
(click to download/print) West Papua 1942 to 2022, the legals, politics, and only way forward
2022, West Papua 1942 to 2022 the legals, the politics, and the only way forward-compressed
Four important legal papers referred to in the document
George Lambert (2000) WEST PAPUA: Real-Politik v International Law
https://dfait.federalrepublicofwestpapua.org/document/west-papua-real-politik-v-international-law-by-george-lambert-icj-2000/
Melinda Janki (2010) West Papua and the Right to Self-Determination under International Law
Melinda Janki, West_Papua_and_the_right_to_self-determination_under_international law
Annette Culley (2016) WEST PAPUA: Decolonization, Boundaries and Self-determination
https://dfait.federalrepublicofwestpapua.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/West-Papua-Decolonization-Boundaries-and-Self-Determination-Annette-Culley.pdf
Annette Culley (2022, 2nd print) State Responsibility in International Law
State Responsibility, July 2022, merged PDFs