2026 Theses Master's

The 2018 State Acquisition of Pt Freeport Indonesia: Partial Nationalization, Human Rights Violations, and Structural Impunity

Sari, Devira

This thesis examines whether the Indonesian government’s 2018 acquisition of a 51.23 percent majority shares in PT Freeport Indonesia improved the human rights conditions of the Amungme and Kamoro Peoples and mine workers in West Papua, or whether it perpetuated and deepened the structural conditions sustaining impunity. Adopting a qualitative comparative case study methodology and analyzing secondary sources, this thesis argues that the partial nationalization of PT Freeport Indonesia has provided the government with dual responsibilities, regulator and co-beneficiary of the company. This position institutionalized a structural conflict of interest in which the state simultaneously operates as majority shareholder and principal regulator.

This argument of this thesis is substantiated through three comparative case analyses examining human rights conditions before and after the 2018 acquisition across three areas: the environmental and health rights of Indigenous communities affected by PT Freeport Indonesia’s tailings disposal practices; the freedom of expression of Papuan communities subjected to militarized repression and deliberate media restrictions; and the labor rights and workplace safety of mine workers as shown in three fatal workplace disasters in 2003, 2013, and 2025.

From these cases, the evidence demonstrates that human rights conditions have not meaningfully improved since the 2018 acquisition and have in key aspects worsened due to company expansion and deepened state financial dependence on mining revenue. These findings challenge the assumption that state co-ownership would enhance human rights protections by positioning the government as a more accountable actor than its foreign corporate predecessor. In the case of PT Freeport Indonesia, partial nationalization eliminates the boundary between the state’s role as duty-bearer and financial beneficiary and instead deepening the very impunity it was presumed to resolve.