Infrastructure Idols is a collection of essays exploring the challenges and human rights impacts arising from large-scale infrastructure development projects in the semi-autonomous Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua.
The research was conducted in the period from August 2019 – January 2020, and explores the complex motivations and dynamics influencing and arising from projects such as the building of airports, roads and telecommunications infrastructure, in regions that are otherwise not widely reported on.

Through these essays, we witness how local communities struggle to deal with the negative impacts that result from such infrastructure developments in their homelands. Further, we come to learn that the forces driving development rarely come from within the communities themselves, but rather from the boardrooms of distant offices in the pursuit of goals which often remain opaque to those most closely affected.

The essays are authored by six Papuan human rights defenders, all of whom are alumni of ELSAM and PBI’s joint initiative, the Basic Course for Human Rights Defenders. This research draws upon many of the skills developed in the course, such as human rights monitoring, research and documentation.