The EU- west Papua Project
This is the latest Solon Law project involving an appraisal of the EU’s foreign and external relations policy in relation to Indonesia, focusing on human rights and environmental conditions in West Papua.
Project Plan
Full Project Title
An appraisal of the EU’s foreign and external relations policy in relation to Indonesia, in the context of West Papua.
Project Participants
Project leader: Eve Sariyiannidou
Project participants: TBC
Project Objectives
a. Overarching objective The overarching aim of the project is: To appraise current and proposed cooperation between the EU and Indonesia, by reference to the human rights and environmental conditions in and affecting West Papua.
b. Specific objectives/areas of work EU’s foreign policy is a sophisticated institutionalised environment of various co-existing fields of policy which define the EU’s relationship with third countries, in this case, Indonesia. It is manifested by common commercial policy (trade), development cooperation, climate change diplomacy, human rights, administration of agreements with third states, and so on. Pure trade measures often give way to cooperation and association agreements with third countries, where economic relations are placed in a wider political context (formal political action that can be taken by the EU in terms of sanctions, restrictions on persons, assets, etc).
Key potential areas of work of the current project:
i. Climate change diplomacy. Initial focus on deforestation, self-determination of indigenous peoples.
ii. Trade/political measures, e.g. palm tree oil.
iii. Human rights. The application of ‘conditionality’ to promote democracy, the rule of law, human rights and the rights of minorities.
iv. Development cooperation.
Research Methodology and Approach
Provide a brief introduction of the historical challenges faced by West Papua as a province of Indonesia, and how these affect the EU’s foreign policy interests in the region and its relationship to Indonesia.
a. Work stream I: EU’s Green Deal on deforestation Provide an overview of the policy objectives of the EU’s Green Deal. Outline the salient features of the EU’s Green Deal with specific emphasis on deforestation. Identify the elements of the EU’s deforestation policy directly relevant to West Papua and its indigenous people. Analysis of the points of interjection between the EU’s deforestation policy and the COP26 (and successive summit). What will the EU’s deforestation policy mean for the region? Identify benefits and potential gaps.
b. Work stream II: The democratic right to self-determination based on individual human rights Appraise the EU’s foreign and external policy in relation to Indonesia in light of general and wider EU values and policies, e.g. respect for human rights and self-determination. The analysis will focus on the points of interjection between EU and international law.
Research Outputs
Articles, working papers, briefing papers, reports.
Dissemination of Results
a. Dissemination of results in working papers series.
b. Present the key findings of the project at international conferences.
c. Present the key findings of the project in policy-makers events.
d. Create a project website (or a section of an existing website dedicated to the project).
Public Communication
a. Within the project website (or relevant section of a wider website), create a blog section designed for wider audiences that will explain the key findings of the project in an accessible manner.
b. Communicate the policies and their social implications to other webpages of professional (non-academic) associations.
c. Disseminate key ideas from the project through short and powerful videos, social media etc.
Interns and volunteers
Maria Ofierska
Maria Dietz Romero
Maria Dietz Romero
Maria is a law student from Poland specialising in International and European law. She has completed an LL.B. Global Law and currently is pursuing an LL.M. in European Law and Global Risk at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. Her main areas of interest are European human rights law, anti-discrimination law, labour law, and migrati
Maria is a law student from Poland specialising in International and European law. She has completed an LL.B. Global Law and currently is pursuing an LL.M. in European Law and Global Risk at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. Her main areas of interest are European human rights law, anti-discrimination law, labour law, and migration law. Currently, she is working part-time in a Dutch law firm advising and helping Polish clients. In future she hopes to contribute to human rights, equality law and social policy at the national and European level and her goal is to ensure better access to justice and legal aid to disadvantaged groups.
"During the summer internship at Solon Law I conducted research on the ‘The Right to Self-determination in European Court of Human Rights case law’. My research focused on how the Strasbourg Court interprets the right to self-determination of peoples, what is the scope of such a right, how and whether it is clearly defined by the Court and whether there are exceptions to the right. In brief, it tries to consolidate the Court’s stance on the application of the right to self-determination of peoples within the Member States to the Council of Europe. Overall, it has been an amazing opportunity to intern at Solon Law as I was able expand my knowledge on ECtHR case law and further study the Convention system. Furthermore, it has been a great honour to be supervised by Dr. Eve Sariyannidou, from whom I have received very valuable feedback on how to conduct research and critically analyse jurisprudence.
My hope for the West Papua is that the democratic right of West Papuans to determine their own future is respected at the international level."
Maria Dietz Romero
Maria Dietz Romero
Maria Dietz Romero
Maria is a law student specialising in European Union law as well as international and European environmental law. She has a Spanish-German background and currently is completing her L.L.M. Degree in the Netherlands. In the future, Maria hopes to contribute in the field of environmental policy making at the European level.
Information on West Papua
