Amnesty International Report 2016/17 - Papua New Guinea

Independent State of Papua New Guinea
Head of state: Queen Elizabeth II, represented by Michael Ogio
Head of government: Peter Charles Paire O'Neill

The authorities failed to prevent widespread violence against children, women, sex workers, asylum-seekers and refugees. Cases of violence were rarely prosecuted. Cultural practices, including polygamy, continued to undermine women's rights. There was insufficient protection against torture or other ill-treatment. The police continued to use excessive force against protesters. Poverty remained endemic, particularly in rural areas, despite economic wealth generated by the mining industry. The death penalty was retained; no executions had been carried out since 1954.

FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND PEACEFUL ASSEMBLY

Weeks of peaceful protests by students at the University of Papua New Guinea against alleged government corruption ended in violence on 8 June, when police fired shots and assaulted peaceful protesters. Thirty-eight people were injured and received medical treatment, including two who suffered gunshot wounds. Although separate investigations were initiated by the police, the Ombudsman and a parliamentary committee, the outcomes were not known at the end of the year.

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS

The government failed to address widespread sexual and gender-based violence in legislation or in practice. Cultural practices were allowed to persist, including the custom whereby wives are forced to repay a "bride price" to their husbands if they wish to separate from him, placing women in abusive marriages at greater risk. Women accused of "sorcery" were subjected to violence from the community.

There was also limited psychosocial support, women's shelters or other services to protect women from domestic violence.

DISCRIMINATION – SEX WORKERS

There were high levels of violence by state and non-state actors against sex workers on grounds of their gender identity, sexual orientation or status as sex workers and as a result of legislation criminalizing sex work.^[1] Systemic gender inequality and discrimination in education, employment and in the community generally, forced many women, including transgender women, and gay men into selling sex for a living. Police officers were responsible for violations against sex workers, such as rape, physical assault, arbitrary arrest and detention and other ill-treatment. The criminalization of same-sex sexual relations as well as of sex work continued to drive and compound violence and discrimination against gay and transgender people. It also led to discrimination in the provision of health care and undermined the prevention and treatment of HIV.

REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS

As of 30 November, around 900 refugees and asylum-seekers, all men, remained in two Australian-run detention centres on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island (see Australia entry). In April, the Supreme Court held that their detention – for over three years – was illegal and unconstitutional. It ordered the Australian and Papua New Guinean governments to close the camps immediately. Both camps remained open at the end of the year.

Refugees and asylum-seekers filed a civil court case seeking orders to force the camps' closure; for them to be returned to Australia; and for compensation for their unlawful detention.

A Sudanese refugee, Faysal Ishak Ahmed, died on 24 December, after being airlifted from one of the detention centres, to an Australian hospital, after a fall and a seizure. Refugees in the centre said his health had deteriorated over months but he was not given adequate health care.

There were continued reports of violence against refugees and asylum-seekers for which the perpetrators were rarely held to account. In April, two Papua New Guinean nationals employed in one of the detention centres were convicted of murdering asylum-seeker Reza Berat in 2014 although others allegedly involved were not prosecuted.

In November, the Australian government announced that some of the refugees detained on Nauru (see Nauru entry) and Manus Island would be resettled in the USA.

1. Outlawed and abused: Criminalizing sex work in Papua New Guinea (ASA 34/4030/2016)