The Secretariat of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) has brought the Pacific’s long-standing call for a United Nations human rights mission to West Papua, Indonesia, to the UN in Geneva (see photo on top, source: Suara Papua). The call was formally conveyed on 25 July 2026 during the 19th session of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP), an advisory body to the UN Human Rights Council that provides expert guidance on the implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The intervention sought to advance a request that Pacific leaders have repeated for more than half a decade. They have been calling upon the Indonesian Government to allow the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit the region. The request was first endorsed by leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum in 2019, reaffirmed by MSG leaders at their 2023 summit in Port Vila, and reiterated by both the Forum and the MSG at a leaders’ meeting in 2025.
Acting Director-General Ilan Kiloe said the Geneva meeting marked an important step in implementing decisions taken by Pacific and Melanesian leaders. “This is a small but significant step towards implementing the leaders’ decisions to advance the voice of Melanesian peoples on the international stage and demonstrates the organisation’s strong commitment to promoting justice, human rights and the rights of indigenous peoples,” Kiloe said.
He added that the Secretariat would continue building on its indigenous rights advocacy, following its engagement in the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion process on states’ obligations regarding climate change.
During the mission, the MSG delegation also met senior UN officials and experts, including EMRIP representatives, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, UN treaty bodies, the UN Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples, and the UN Office on Youth. The visit closed with a briefing for MSG ambassadors and permanent representatives in Geneva, led by Vanuatu’s Ambassador Sylvain Kalsakau at the Permanent Mission of the Pacific Islands Forum.
