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“We welcome President Joko Widodo’s acknowledgment and expression of regret for 12 historical incidences of serious human rights violations, including the 1965-1966 anti-Communist crackdown, the 1982-1985 protester shootings, enforced disappearances in 1997 and 1998, and the Wamena Incident in Papua in 2003.The President’s gesture is an encouraging step on the long road to justice for victims and their loved ones,”she said.
This follows the recently concluded report by the Team for the Non-Judicial Resolution of Past Serious Human Rights Violations, which the UN Human Rights office hope will be made public to encourage discussion and debate.
“We note the President’s statement, delivered on Wednesday, does not preclude further judicial action and commits to reforms that should guarantee non-recurrence,” Throssell said.
“We urge the Indonesian Government to build on this momentum with tangible steps to take forward a meaningful, inclusive and participatory transitional justice process, guaranteeing truth, justice, reparations, and non-recurrence to victims and affected communities, including victims of conflict-related sexual violence,” the spokesperson stated.
Adding “A comprehensive transitional justice process will help to break the decades-long cycle of impunity, advance national healing, and strengthen Indonesia’s democracy.”
An estimated half a million people were killed in the anti-Communist crackdown of the 1960s and scores of pro-reform protesters lost their lives in killings during the 1980s.
END
For more information and media requests, please contact:
Ravina Shamdasani - + 41 22 917 9169 / ravina.shamdasani@un.org or
Liz Throssell + 41 22 917 9296 / elizabeth.throssell@un.org or
Jeremy Laurence + +41 22 917 9383 / jeremy.laurence@un.org or
Marta Hurtado - + 41 22 917 9466 / marta.hurtadogomez@un.org
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- Exterior shot: Wide shot entrance of Palais des Nations
- Wide Shot: Briefing room
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Liz Throssell, Spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR): “We welcome President Joko Widodo’s acknowledgment and expression of regret for 12 historical incidences of serious human rights violations, including the 1965-1966 anti-Communist crackdown, the 1982-1985 protester shootings, enforced disappearances in 1997 and 1998, and the Wamena Incident in Papua in 2003. The President’s gesture is an encouraging step on the long road to justice for victims and their loved ones.”
- Cut aways: briefing room
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Liz Throssell, Spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR): “We note the President’s statement, delivered on Wednesday, does not preclude further judicial action and commits to reforms that should guarantee non-recurrence.”
- Cut aways: briefing room
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Liz Throssell, Spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR): “We urge the Indonesian Government to build on this momentum with tangible steps to take forward a meaningful, inclusive and participatory transitional justice process, guaranteeing truth, justice, reparations, and non-recurrence to victims and affected communities, including victims of conflict-related sexual violence.”
- Cut aways: briefing room
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Liz Throssell, Spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR): “A comprehensive transitional justice process will help to break the decades-long cycle of impunity, advance national healing, and strengthen Indonesia’s democracy.”
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New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
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- Asia and Africa are regions most affected by water-related disasters
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Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
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Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
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The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
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