Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea – 03rd March, 2025 ,
Today’s launching of PNG’s CEDAW Shadow Report is the first CSO collective action to hold ourselves as a country accountable to United Nation’s Treaties that Papua New Guinea as a nation ratified, more importantly use this to encourage everyone in Papua New Guinea to urgently standup to protect our communities. It is no longer pressing only for women and girls’ rights but rights of Humanity in Papua New Guinea.
This Shadow Report is the second that will be submitted to the CEDAW Committee by the Civil Society Led Coalition (CSLC). The first one was submitted by the Papua New Guinea (PNG) National Council of Women (NCW) in 2010 for the first to the third cycle report.
This shadow report is dedicated to the 17 girls of the remotest Walagu village of Mt Bosavi in Hela Province who were abducted and raped on the 7th of June, 2023. Again, an unconfirmed number of women and girls were also raped before being killed in the Sepik River villages of Tamara, Tambari, and Angrumara in East Sepik’s Angoram district on the 23rd of June 2024, and the women and girls of Hela and Enga who have continuously lost their lives, raped and tortured during the tribal fights and the recent loss of young lives of our women and girls in Central and NCD -we care for you. The greatest commendation to all the individual women catalysts, lone fighters, human rights defenders, female village court magistrates, and peace and justice officials who have, in many ways, put their lives in danger to protect vulnerable women and girls where there is no strong presence of law and order. The CSO Led Coalition is made up of 30 CSOs and is led by four CSOs.
PNG is known as the most dangerous place for women and girls to live in. The CSO-led Coalition for CEDAW, a key advocate for women’s rights in the country, keeps pushing for mechanisms of women empowerment for the collective eradication of gender-based violence (GBV). The state is amending, repealing and enacting laws that do not discriminate against women and girls and, most importantly, improving gender parity in every workforce. However, these efforts are not comprehensive and do not extend to all sectors. The women and girls of PNG are struggling with updated global trends, communal living conditions, individual demands, and pressures influenced by traditional and conservative social norms. A few critical areas need to be addressed to enable and empower change to occur and to strive to end: – access to justice, prosecution and conviction of perpetrators, lack of psycho-social services for traumatized victims, counselling services, lack of inclusion, increased and uncontrolled technology-facilitated violence, access to government funds for rural and remote women economic schemes, child and maternal health care, violence on women who are contesting election and non-progress of the Temporary Special Measures.
The information provided in the CEDAW Shadow report results from comprehensive data collection from all the key frontline organizations, spanning from remote PNG to urban areas. The data collected from 2020 to 2024 provides a broad and far-reaching perspective on the heinous crimes committed against women and girls in PNG. It covers everything from women giving birth in the bushes to women and girls accused of practising sorcery and tortured to death by their own families.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of UN Security Council resolution 1325 on the Women, Peace and Security National Action Plan (NAP). This milestone underscores the importance of the state’s role in advancing WPS’s key priorities while waiting for the road map to NAP. However, there are still significant gaps. The state-mandated office, the Department of Community Development, lacks an inclusive plan for female inmates and their daughters and has no economic plans for women with disabilities. This leaves women with disabilities permanently deprived of their rights to access economic empowerment. Sustainable Development Goals 5 and 16 are key agenda items. However, the CSOs have yet to fully understand how the state works with other partners to monitor and report through the National Voluntary Report. Gender parity in education has improved for both female teachers and students; however, women and girls in rural and remote PNG are still struggling to afford education, and inclusive education for women and girls with disabilities remains a grave concern. Election-related violence and other conflicts have pushed students out of schools, especially girls who are always targeted for sexual violence. Over the years, the state has worked hard to respond to all cross-cutting issues; the biggest is the lawlessness in PNG.
This pivotal report serves as a crucial milestone in documenting the interventions and challenges faced by Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Papua New Guinea (PNG) based on the guidelines of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
About the CSO Coalition:
The CSO Coalition, led by Advancing PNG Women Leaders Network (APNGWLN), Business Coalition for Women (BCFW), Papua Native Land-Owners Association (PNA), and Magna Carta PNG (MCPNG), is a collective of civil society organisations dedicated to promoting and protecting the rights of women and girls in Papua New Guinea.
Contact:
| Ruth Kissam- Tindiwi Advancing PNG Women’s Leaders Network info@advancepngwomen.net | Shirley Kaupa Magna Carta PNG |
| Evonne Kennedy PNG Business Coalition for Women | Lucielle Paru Papua Native Land-Owners Association |