John Rumbiak

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John Rumbiak (born 1962), is an environment and human rights activist from the island of Biak in West Papua.

He has also been called West Papua’s leading human rights campaigner ^{[citation needed]}. He was born in Biak in 1962. In 1982 he went to study English at Cenderawasih University in Abepura. Later he started working for organisations based out of Jayapura the capital of West Papua. He is regarded as one of the top authorities on West Papuan issues, highly respected both within West Papua and externally.

In the early days of his activism he worked as a field researcher and then as coordinator for studies and advocacy at the Rural Community Development Foundation (YPMD) in Abepura. He then went on to be a founding member of Elsham, a leading human rights Non-governmental organization in Jayapura.

As a result of his knowledge and understanding of West Papuan issues and his diplomatic style communication skills in English, John got to travel widely attending many international conferences where he could inform the international community about what was taking place in his country. In February 2005, he suffered a stroke in New York, he is also fearful of returning to West Papua after a series of death threats in 2003. ^{[citation needed]} He currently remains there.