UPR Sexual Rights Database

National Report:
Para 118) The National Policy for Women and Gender Equity provides for women empowerment for equal participation and beneficial in all areas of economic, social, political and spiritual development.

Para 121) The National Council of Women Act 2013 provides for equal participation in political and public affairs.

Para 123) The Constitutional Amendment No. 32, Equality and Participation Law 2011 promotes equality in political participation, giving effect to the second goal of the National Goals and Directive Principles of Equality and Participation adding "a number of women elected from a single member women's electorate as defined under an Organic Law".

Challenges
Para 128) Papua New Guinea has made significant progress to date, but has not achieved gender parity in education. Representation of women in parliament is also low. Papua New Guinea is a signatory to several international conventions and instruments to support gender equality and empowerment including CEDAW, MDGs and the SDGs. Targets under these instruments has been domesticated and progress has been made, such as MDG 3 which focuses on the inclusion of women and girls in education and economic and political empowerment.

Measures to ensure greater representation in Parliament for women
Para 135) The Government has enacted the Constitutional Amendment No. 32. Equality and Participation Law (2011) which promotes equality in political participation. This law gives effect to the second goal of the National Goals and Directive Principles (NGDPs) of Equality and Participation adding "a number of women elected from a single member women's electorate as defined under an Organic Law."

Para 136) The Government also enacted the National Council of Women Act 2013 which provides for equal participation in political and public affairs. The Constitution also provides for the principle of equality between men and women in all areas.

Para 137) Recognizing the disparity of women's representation in parliament at the regional level, in 2012 the Pacific Islands Forum Gender Equality Declaration, which Papua New Guinea is a State party, committed to adopt measures to accelerate women participation, such as temporary special measures to establish reserved seats for women and political party reforms. Despite efforts to improve this situation there remains much work to be done.

Para 138) Despite the obstacles, Papua New Guinea has made some progress over the past 3 to 5 years, at both the National and Sub National levels. There are now three female MPs in Parliament compared to one woman in the previous Parliament. Over 20 women were also elected at the last Local Level Government Elections; and Political Parties are getting more women into party leadership. This is due to advocacy from women's groups, development partners including UNDP, EU, USA and Australia.

UN Compilation:
Para 46) The country team stated that women's participation in political office was low. In 2012, three women had been elected for a total of 111 seats (2.7 per cent). In the autonomous region of Bougainville, 3 of 39 parliamentary seats were reserved for women. In local elections in 2015, one woman had won an open seat.

National Report:
Para 32) Recent amendments to the Marriage Act 1963 and Matrimonial Causes Act 1963 addresses gaps in existing laws on discrimination against women in relation to custody and rights to matrimonial property and other related matters.

Para 33) The LukautimPikinini Act 2015 provides a comprehensive framework on the protection of the female child and introduces provisions for women with children and pregnant women in custody.

Para 37) The Civil Registry Act 2014 expands the identification services for Papua New Guineans and provides for the registration of one wife to have access to property and matrimonial rights. However, this has raised the issue of the rights of the second wife and that of her children. This issue is being addressed by the Government

Para 38) The Government has developed policies, plans and strategies to address and eliminate all forms of discrimination and abuse against women as per Article 2 of CEDAW. All the policies below are comprehensive and address several human rights issues in consistent with the National Constitution of Papua New Guinea. These include:
- Papua New Guinea Vision 2050, which is a long-term national development roadmap;
- Millennium Development Goals (MDG) 2000-2015;
- National Strategy for Responsible Sustainable Development (STARS), which addresses the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2015-2030;
- Medium Term Development Plan 2 (MTDP) 2016-2017, usually a 5-year development rolling plan;
- National Public Service Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Policy (GESI Policy);
- National Security Strategy 2013;
- Development Strategic Plan (PNGSDP) 2010-2030.

Para 45) The Village Courts Act 2014 (as amended) in Section 3 explicitly stipulates an objective for Village Courts to "improve access for women to Village Courts and to eliminate discrimination against women in Village Court proceedings; provide access to justice for all Papua New Guineans regardless of where they live; and to promote practices and procedures that are consistent with the basic rights guaranteed by Division 111.3 (Basic Rights) of the Constitution".

Para 79) The Government has funded the National Women’s Bank for women in the informal sector to commence income generation and assist in expanding business ventures. Such initiative has given women income earning opportunities and also access to banking services.
Women and Gender Equity Policy (2011-2015)

Para 122) The Incorporated Land Group (Amendment) Act 2009 provides for the inclusion of women in decision-making on customary landownership and the management of the land.

Para 124) The Informal Sector Development and Control Act 2004 and the National Informal Economy Policy (2011–2015) provides for the framework to support the informal economic activity which makes up about 85% of the PNG rural workforce, the majority of whom are women.

Para 126) The Government has taken steps to review laws to protect women against discrimination and gender-based violence and to promote gender equality in the country. The Government is in the process of completing a Report with recommendations to harmonise CEDAW with domestic legislations.

Para 136) The Government also enacted the National Council of Women Act 2013 which provides for equal participation in political and public affairs. The Constitution also provides for the principle of equality between men and women in all areas."

National Report:
Para 36) A further amendment to the Criminal Code (Amendment) Act 2014 criminalised sorcery-related violence and killings and provides protection for women who have been accused of sorcery-related activities.

Para 132) Following a nationwide consultation on the issue of sorcery, the Sorcery Act 1971which provided for sorcery allegations as an offence, was repealed in 2012. Given the nature of serious crimes being perpetrated against alleged sorcerers, a new offence of wilful murder has been inserted into the Papua New Guinea Criminal Code on account of accusation of sorcery and carries the maximum penalty.

UN Compilation:
Para 7) The Special Rapporteur on summary executions and the country team noted as positive step that, in 2013, Parliament had repealed the Sorcery Act (1971)

Stakeholder Summary:
Para 5) PI, HRW and CS welcomed the fact that, in May 2103, Parliament repealed the Sorcery Act.

Para 22) HRW and JS3 recalled that, during its 1st UPR, PNG accepted several recommendations related to sorcery related crimes. JS3, however, noted that, despite the repeal of the Sorcery Act, people, particularly women, continue to be accused of sorcery, and many are subjected to violence including torture and killing. The real extent of sorcery-related violence was difficult to estimate because many cases go unreported.

National Report:
Para 31) The Family Protection Act 2013 passed by the National Parliament on 18 September 2013 provides a comprehensive legislative framework to combat domestic violence against women in Papua New Guinea and to provide for family and interim protection orders. It also criminalises domestic violence; allows for neighbours, relatives and children to report domestic violence; as well as gives police the power to remove perpetrators from their homes to protect the victim. Penalties for breach of the Act include fines up to K5,000.00 (US$1,650.00) and 2 years in prison.

"National Report:
Para 44) The Village Courts and Land Mediation Secretariat, has incorporated human rights issues into its training manual and programs for village court officials and land mediators. Through this program village court officials and land mediators are trained in cross cutting issues such as gender, family and sexual violence, HIV and AIDS.

Para 47) Village Courts in PNG are mandated by law to uphold basic Human Rights as guaranteed under the Constitution in relation to protection for women and children from all forms of violence.

Para 48) The Government, through the Magisterial Services, has commenced training for district court magistrates on human rights in general and in relation to the protection orders under the Family Protection Act to protect women and children, including men, against domestic violence including threats and intimidation.

Para 87) The Government developed and established hospital based Family Support Centres (FSC) to assist victims of violence with a one-stop shop for coordinated medical, psychosocial and referral services, and case-management support has improved the situation of women survivors of gender-based violence (GBV). The establishment of FSCs is in line with the National Health Plan (2001–2020), which emphasises on the value of rolling out FSCs as a strategy for addressing the poor indicators related to maternal and child health and HIV/AIDS and STIs, and to improve healthy lifestyles. The FSC guidelines were finalised in 2012 and disseminated in 2013

GESI Policy (2013–2015)
Para 119) The Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) Policy provides a progressive mechanism for the empowerment of women and girls within the Public Service. The GESI is specifically aimed at promoting, building skills and capacity of women to be leaders in the Public Service and the wider community. It also provides for the protection of women from gender-based violence and exploitation in professional settings.

Para 120) The Family Protection Act 2013 criminalises domestic violence and provides for family protection orders for victims of domestic violence.

Para 126) The Government has taken steps to review laws to protect women against discrimination and gender-based violence and to promote gender equality in the country. The Government is in the process of completing a Report with recommendations to harmonise CEDAW with domestic legislations.

Para 127) The Government has developed the Papua New Guinea National Strategy to prevent and respond to Gender Based Violence (2015–2025). This Strategy is aimed at strengthening and institutionalizing all initiatives and work on gender based violence in order to achieve zero-tolerance towards gender based violence. The Strategy will focus on the prevention of gender based violence and family sexual violence and on the delivery of quality services to survivors of gender based violence and family sexual violence. It also focuses on strengthening existing structures and interventions based on best practises at national, regional and international levels rather than re-inventing previous work.

Para 128) However, Gender Based Violence (GBV) remains a concern as it is endemic which continues to pose major obstacles to development. The Government remains committed to addressing these issues. To a large extent, Gender equality and women’s empowerment are dependent on freedom from violence, and an enabling environment to give all women and girls the opportunity to participate in all aspects of development. The global Gender Development Index and Human Development Index for successive periods persistently continue to place Papua New Guinea amongst the lowest ranking countries in the world.

Para 130) The Government established a multi-sectoral technical working group which started the process to develop asexual and gender based violence strategy (Sexual Gender Based Violence Strategy (2015–2020)).The Government has also conducted training programs on sexual and gender based violence for relevant stakeholders.

Measures/achievement
Para 131) Some of the measures being implemented by the Government to address violence against women and girls include:
- The creation of domestic violence centres and family support centre which are accessible in the urban and provincial centres;
- Gender mainstreaming within different government departments through the GESI Policy;
- Criminalising gender-based violence.

UN Compilation:
Para 5) The Special Rapporteur on summary executions noted the positive step of the adoption of the Family Protection Act (2013), which criminalized domestic violence.16 According to the country team, Papua New Guinea was taking actions, supported by the United Nations, donors and national civil society actors, to implement the Act.

Para 21) In 2013, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women noted that the country had undertaken legal and institutional initiatives to address the situation of women and girls in the country. However, those had not been translated into concrete improvements in the lives of the majority of women, who remain marginalized, discriminated against and at high risk of being subjected to violence.

Para 35) The country team indicated that, in 2014, the Government had drafted the National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-Based Violence 2015-2050

Stakeholder Summary:
Para 4) HRW recalled that, during its 1st UPR, PNG committed to take specific measures to eliminate domestic violence. In this regard, CS, International Presentation Association (IPA), Human Rights Watch (HRW), Medecins sans Frontières (MSF) and Passionists International (PI), recognized as a positive step that PNG had adopted the 2013 Family Protection Act, which criminalizes family and sexual violence and gives police power to arrest and prosecute perpetrators. However, although the Act came into force in March 2014, it had not yet been implemented. CS added that despite the Act, women still commonly suffered from physical and sexual assault.

Para 27) HRW welcomed the establishment of police Family and Sexual Violence Units and hospital-based Family Support Centres, as well as the process initiated to develop a gender-based violence strategy.