A meeting on human rights in West Papua

14-17 October 2015: Fr. Anthony Banks, CEO of the Foundation: Augustinians Across the World, the one in the Order of Saint Augustine who is responsible for the Asia-Oceania area, participated in a meeting on human rights in West Papua, which was held in Sorong from the 14th to the 17th of October and which was organized by Augustinians International, Franciscans International and VIVAT. The four days were dedicated to the theme of the human rights of the Papuans, because, even though on 17 August Indonesia had celebrated the 70th anniversary of independence, West Papua continues to experience aggression and acts of discrimination against its indigenous people. Besides these acts of discrimination because of ethnic reasons, there are also many acts of discrimination because of religious differences. The Papuans in fact are for the most part Christian while the rest of the population of the country is Muslim and this makes it impossible for them to construct both new churches and new schools.