The essay says Pacific Island states raised Papua human-rights access and a UN rights-chief audit at the General Assembly while still affirming Indonesian sovereignty, which it treats as internationally intact.

It separates that legal status from effective rule: attacks on teachers and officials justify a security response, but roads and ports have not closed gaps in education, health, jobs, or fair shares of resource revenue.

The prescribed mix is special-autonomy quality, anti-corruption, inclusion of Papuan identity, and treating transparency with Pacific states as a diplomatic asset rather than a concession.

The issue of Papua has gained international attention once again, as several countries from the Pacific Islands drew attention to human rights violations in Papua during the General Assembly of the United Nations. The countries that spoke up regarding human rights in Papua stressed the need for greater international access to the region, but in the same breath underlined Indonesia’s sovereignty over Papua. To date, international recognition of Papua’s status as part of the Republic of Indonesia has not wavered. The recent declarations by several leaders of Pacific countries stressing the need for greater transparency in Papua and an audit by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights are significant. They differ, however, from efforts to question Indonesia’s sovereignty over Papua, which to date remains non-existent.

Most importantly, our analysis highlights the distinction between Indonesia’s legal legitimacy over Papua and its effective governance over the region. As sovereignty over Papua is widely recognized internationally, problems of human rights and social and economic inequality exist, which must be addressed by Indonesia. These problems cannot be solved through the application of extra military force but rather through the development of effective and legitimate governance that is capable of managing the diverse social, cultural, economic, and political interests that exist in Papua today.

First and foremost, a large portion of the political discussion about Papua is........

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