Following Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s announcement that a new “resettlement arrangement” will see all asylum seekers arriving by boat sent to Papua New Guinea, we thought we’d take a look at the reality of life as a woman in the developing country.
While there has been worldwide concern regarding the lack of human rights in PNG for years, violence against women continues to be a particularly serious problem.
In November last year, the president of Medecins Sans Frontieres pushed PNG’s new government to address its epidemic levels of sexual and domestic violence, calling it a “humanitarian crisis” and reporting an estimated 70% of PNG women who will be raped or physically assaulted in their lifetime.
According to UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, violence against women in PNG occurs at almost pandemic levels – a result of low education rates and a lack of independent economic means, reducing the ability of PNG women to leave violent relationships and seek help.
Sixty-seven per cent of women in PNG have been beaten by their husbands, including nearly 100% in the Highlands, half of married women have been raped by their husbands, two-thirds of women aged 15-24 provide sex in exchange for money, food and shelter, and PNG women are six times more likely than men to suffer torture and killing in response to sorcery and witchcraft allegations.
Just last month, a female teacher was tortured and beheaded in public by PNG locals who believed she was a witch and responsible for the death of another villager. With guns, machetes and axes, the locals dragged the teacher away, as well as her sister and two nieces, and burnt her house down. This followed further violence in April, when two women were accused of witchcraft and tortured and beheaded, and in February when a woman was burnt to death in front of a crowd at Mt Hagen.
Following the surge in sorcery-related violence, PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill apologised for the violence against women in his country and pledged a return of the death penalty, while also repealing the country’s 1971 Sorcery Act.
UN Women says services available to women experiencing violence in the Pacific are often underfunded, inadequate or non-existent. And when it comes to getting help from PNG law enforcement, women have reported being forced to perform sexual favours in return for assistance from police and have been gang-raped in police custody. In place of legal repercussions for offenders, village courts often make traditional apologies to victims instead.
While PNG has made some headway in its efforts to reduce violence against women – including the criminalisation of sexual offences against children and the recognition of marital rape as an offence – the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has said these measures are poorly implemented and that much more needs to be done.
In May this year, former prime minister Julia Gillard launched the PNG women in business initiative ($1million over five years) to help PNG women to take advantage of the country’s growing economic opportunities.
According to AusAid, PNG men are almost twice as likely as women to work for wages, with 40% of men compared to 24% of women across the country. Also, women in formal sector jobs report average wages that are less than half of those of men.
PNG Facts:
Population: 7,167,010
GDP: $15,653,921,367
GDP Growth: 7.9%
Inflation: 8.4%
Life expectancy at birth: 63 years
*Source: World Bank.
Check out our recently published ‘letter from PNG’ on rape and domestic violence in the country.