PNG: More horrific stories of violence against women
Updated
As more horrific stories of violence against women emerge from Papua New Guinea, there is increasing pressure on the new government to take the issue seriously. But according to a major PNG human rights group there is simply no political interest in the issue.
Presenter: Barbara Heggen
Speakers: Lady Hilan Los - Co-ordinator of the Individual and Community Rights Advocacy Forum; Shamima Ali - Chair of the Pacific Women's Network Against Violence Against Women; Dame Carol Kidu, PNG parliamentarian
BARBARA HEGGEN: A few weeks ago a coalition of women's groups in the private sector presented a petition against family violence to the PNG parliament. Meantime the number of horrific stories in the local media of women being beaten and burned have escalated. Lady Hilan Loss from the individual & community rights advocacy forum says the new government has shown no interest in the petition and is simply not interested in the issue.
LADY HILAN LOS: The Domestic Violence report was done by the Law Reform Commission was presented in Parliament 1993/'94 and nothing has been done. There was no debate on it and its still with the Parliament. So you know again this petition here is a - really indicates that the Government is you know not really serious about the matter at all.
BARBARA HEGGEN: High levels of violence against women are not just confined to Papua New Guinea. Shamima Ali is the Chair of the Pacific Womens Network against Violence Against Women and she says that the problem continues to be a critical issue throughout the region.
LADY HILAN LOS: All the other countries outside the pacific are having problems in addressing the situation. They are trying very hard. There are centres like ours Women Centres, Counselling Centres and so on. Papua New Guinea with its population looks bad, really, really bad. I can assure you that on average we would say in the Pacific looking at the centres, the kind of statistics they are producing at least you know 50% I would say of women in each of the pacific countries suffer from violence, you know gender based violence. Fiji our - you know research showed 67% of women say they had been beaten at least once, whereas 2% said they lived in regularly violent situations. One in four women said they had been at some times sexually assaulted. So you know the statistics are high for the Pacific as it is for anywhere else. But I think its more difficult to work in the Pacific because of culture, you know traditional practices, these things are really hard to break.
BARBARA HEGGEN: The petition to PNG parliament was presented by the country's only female parliamentarian Diane Carol Keedo. She says the issue has taken extremely seriously by her male parliamentary colleagues and that contrary to popular belief, the high levels of violence against women is due in large part to a lack of custom rather than being a result of custom. Diane Keeto says violence in general is widespread throughout Papua New Guinea and its not just women that are affected. She says the whole community needs to address the broader issues of social breakdown in order to tackle domestic violence.
LADY HILAN LOS: Much of what they are seeing today is not custom. You know we don't want people - the young people to believe that what we are seeing today is actually the real custom because its not, much of it is a manipulation or abuse of custom. For example the custom of bride price has changed enormously in the time I've been in Papua New Guinea 40 years and its become to - you know its commercialized women, commodified women. Whereas before it was a custom that actually gave protection to women and put family obligations on protecting women. So we've got to continue the awareness on the abuse of custom, on the rights of women. We've got to also make sure that we enact the laws that exist. We do have - I mean the laws are there, it's a long term process of continuing awareness, greater vigilance from civil society and not just thinking the politicians are supposed to solve this.
