Topic: Mechanisms for Peacefully Resolving Border Disputes
Country: Australia
Delegate Name: Tabitha Frazier
School: East Grand Rapids High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Australia position papers GLIMUN 2014 committees
Australia has had some border disputes in the past and for the most part, it has resolved them peacefully. For example, Australia has had a border dispute with Timor-Leste in which the resources were split between Australia, Indonesia, and Timor Leste (East Timor). Australia and Indonesia created a treaty called “The Zone of Cooperation” (Timor Gap Treaty) on December 11, 1989 that said that the oil resources would be shared between Australia and Indonesia. With this treaty, it was unfair to East Timor because there were less maritime resources given to them. Thankfully, on February 22, 2007, the CMATS Treaty was put into effect. This treaty marked the boundaries of how much of the resources each country was able to have and utilize. As a result of the CMATS Treaty, the oil and petroleum resources were more equally distributed between Indonesia, Australia, and Timor Leste (East Timor).
In 1999, Australia helped to make East Timor independent from Indonesia. They wrote a letter to the United Nations, stopped violence that resulted from the writing of the letter, and monitored the first East Timor elections. All this aided in East Timor becoming an independent nation. The reason that Australia chose to help East Timor was because during that time, five Australian journalists were killed by Indonesian soldiers at Balibo; this tragedy made the Australians sympathetic to East Timor wanting to secede from Indonesia because they were angry at Indonesia for killing their journalists. Today, West Papua is asking Australia for help with becoming independent from Indonesia, and Australia is not helping West Papua because there is not a tragedy involving Australia and Indonesia to make a need for them to help West Papua.
Unfortunately, the UN is not doing anything to help West Papua because West Papua is not a part of the United Nations; Indonesia is a part of the UN, but they are not going to bring up the problem because they are the people that are being violent to the West Papua people. In West Papua, there is an increase in HIV/AIDS, the people live in poor conditions, and there are low literacy rates. In addition to these, people in Indonesia are killing people in West Papua, and Australia is not reaching out to the United Nations; therefore, the United Nations is doing nothing for the West Papua people.
Australia believes that it is alright not to do anything because there is no tragedy making them angry at Indonesia therefore causing them to help West Papua, and there would be no benefit for Australia if they helped West Papua. Therefore, a peaceful mechanism for resolving border disputes is to simply ignore the country asking them for help.
"Centre of International Law." National University of Singapore. National University of Singapore, n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.
Hamutuk, La'o. "Information about the Treaty between Australia and Timor-Leste OnCertain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea (CMATS)." CMATS Treaty and Maritime Boundaries. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.
"Member States of the United Nations." UN News Center. UN, n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.
Wenda, Benny. "West Papua: My People Need Australia's Help before It Is Too Late." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited or Its Affiliated Companies, n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.
Woods, Genevieve. "Australia and West Papua: Absent Allies – Fair Observer." Fair Observer. Shutterstock, n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.
