Violence Against Women in Elections in Papua New Guinea

PNG is the largest Pacific Island country, with a population estimated at 10.3 million₁₃.  It is extremely diverse, with over 800 language groups. PNG consists of 22 provinces within four major regions—the Highlands, Momase, New Guinea Islands, and Southern regions. Only 13.1 percent of the population lived in urban areas as of 2020₁₄;  the vast majority live in rural areas. The country has 600 main islands and mountainous terrain, creating strong local tribal/clan-based identities. The country is predominantly Christian; approximately 60 percent of the population identify as Protestant, 26 percent as Catholic, 9 percent as members of other Christian groups, and approximately 3.3 percent as other₁₅.  Villages across PNG have at least one church. The church is viewed as authoritative; its norms function as social norms in PNG despite the diversity of tribes and languages. Missionaries built on earlier ideas of gender norms in the country. Church leadership is typically assigned to men who occupy the key roles of pastors, priests, ministers, and bishops. The church also reinforces patriarchal norms, which maintain that a woman’s place is in the home and that men are decision-makers as heads of the family. 

PNG became fully independent from Australia in 1975 following nearly a century of oversight by Germany, Britain, and Australia. The new country was established as a parliamentary democracy. PNG’s patriarchal society and gender norms, which missionaries and colonial administrations reinforced₁₆,  limit women’s political participation and institutional seniority.

PNG is one of the world’s most fragile states due to poor governance, political instability, ineffective leadership, violent elections, corruption, organized crime, and lack of public sector capacity. Members of Parliament (MPs) have discretion over large amounts of development funding that is not well regulated. This results in an intensely patron-client political system. Candidates, often referred to as “big men,” bargain for support among those who control voting blocs through patronage networks. This system of political authority reinforces the commonly held view₁₇ that leadership is a masculine trait₁₈. 

Historically, international observer groups have characterized elections in PNG as violent and corrupt, particularly in the volatile Highlands regions. The 2002 election was called “chaotic and violent,” with voting irregularities, manipulation, intimidation, and violence between candidates, supporters, and polling officials₁₉.  The transition from the first-past-the-post system to limited preferential voting in 2007 was intended to elect MPs who had received higher percentages of the popular vote, reduce electoral violence, and increase the likelihood of success for female candidates₂₀.  The results of this change have been mixed. While electoral practitioners viewed the 2007 and subsequent national election campaign and polling periods as generally more peaceful than in 2002, electoral violence was heightened during the counting stages of the 2007, 2012, and 2017 national elections₂₁.  The Australian National University observation report of the 2017 process noted that 204 deaths occurred over the electoral period, double the number in 2002. In 2022, 50 election-related deaths were recorded₂₂.  While far fewer than in 2017, this statistic alone does not paint the full picture. Violence in the 2022 general election was more widespread, extending beyond the Highlands region to impact coastal areas that were previously considered peaceful₂₃.  Massive internal displacement of people in the Highlands occurred ₂₄,  with almost half the population from three provinces in the Highlands estimated to have been impacted by ongoing conflict and election-related violence. Women and children were disproportionately impacted, with at least 70 women and girls raped, kidnapped, or victims of SARV₂₅.  Social media spread viral videos of election violence, creating an impression that it was worse than in previous contests. 

In 2022, some candidates took advantage of gaps in election administration to hijack ballot boxes in some areas, bribing counting officials, heads of villages, communities, or families to vote in blocs for them₂₆.  Rather than reducing the impact of money politics and bolstering women’s electoral prospects as intended, the limited preferential system increases opportunities for bribery and vote buying, damaging opportunities for women to win seats₂₇. 

During elections, legacy issues from disagreements between supporters of different candidates can boil over into violence. While 10,300 security forces were engaged for the 2022 national elections (close to the 10,500 engaged in 2017), a funding shortfall kept security personnel reactive rather than proactive in preventing violence₂₈.  The PNG police force (the main electoral security personnel deployed to polling and counting stations) is extremely small compared to the population, which is why elections are conducted in different locations at different times so that security personnel can move from one polling station to the next. Given that police resources are spread thin it is difficult to respond effectively to larger scale violence that may erupt. Meanwhile, politicians and community leaders often employ private security firms to protect themselves rather than protect citizens from election violence. 
 

National Commitments 
The Preamble of the Constitution of PNG states that citizens are guaranteed fundamental rights and freedoms regardless of “their race, tribe, places of origin, political opinion, color, creed or sex.” The government of PNG is committed to promoting and advancing equality in all spheres of life and identified gender equality, as a key pillar of the Papua New Guinea Vision 2050. In PNG, women and men have the same legal status and rights to labor, property, inheritance, employment, access to credit, and ownership or management of businesses or property₂₉.  However, women continue to face severe inequalities in all aspects of social, cultural, economic, and political life. 

PNG national policies provide responses to gender inequality through the National Policy for Women and Gender Equality, National Public Service Gender Equity & Social Inclusion Policy, and National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-Based Violence 2016–2025₃₀.  Progress on implementing these policies and strategies has been slow. An interim GBV Secretariat was operationalized, with donor funding, five years after the national strategy was published. CSOs have worked with national and local government departments to implement the policies. Following the initial report issued by the Special Parliamentary Committee on GBV in August 2021, the PNG government finally allocated funds to implement the National GBV Strategy, which, in the words of the committee, “has languished since its launch in 2016.₃₁”  However, as of the time of this report, the allocated funds had not been released to fund prevention and response services. Additionally, the calls from the committee to fund and staff a permanent GBV secretariat had not been answered. 
 

Gender-Based Violence Laws

As early as 1982, the PNG Legal Reform Commission recognized GBV as an issue of public concern.₃₂  However, domestic violence was not criminalized until the passage of the Family Protection Act (FPA) in 2013, and the FPA did not come into full effect until 2017, when regulations for family protection orders were gazetted. Amendments to the FPA passed in 2022, included expanded definitions of assault, psychological abuse, sexual assault, and aggravated family violence. The amendments also removed court fees for applications for protection orders ₃₃.  Under the FPA, village courts can issue interim protection orders, and district courts can issue both interim and longer-term protection orders. The FPA also led to the creation of police FSVUs. These frontline units provide guidance on how to obtain family protection orders. However, FSVU records show that interim protection orders were recorded as outcomes in approximately 10 percent of cases.  Additionally, while most women experience rape or sexual assault during their lifetimes, according to Human Rights Watch, in 2020, approximately 15,000 cases₃₄ of domestic violence were reported, but only 300 individuals were prosecuted and 100 convicted₃₅. Police officials admitted in testimony before the Special Parliamentary Committee on GBV that police could not keep women and children safe and lacked resources for thorough investigations. As a result, confidence in the police is low, and the vast majority of cases of GBV go unreported; when reported, they are rarely prosecuted. Thus, the laws are ineffective in practice. CSOs and churches are left to provide support services to GBV survivors. 

In 2022, the Criminal Code was amended to criminalize the act of making accusations of sorcery against others or claiming to have supernatural powers to identify “sorcerers.”₃₆  The amendment followed a noted rise in this type of violence in recent years and the Special Parliamentary Committee on GBV’s recommendation for legal reform to address this issue. The committee also recommended that the government resource the SARV National Action Plan so it could be implemented. As a result, the 2022 national budget allocated some funding to address SARV, and the committee recommended it be used to fund small grants to support CSOs and CBOs to design and roll out locally contextualized activities. The committee further recommended that the SARV National Action Plan be reviewed and updated and that funding be allocated in 2023 for its implementation. 

Sexual harassment is legal in PNG and remains a widespread problem. Women frequently experience harassment in public locations and workplaces. Public Service Act General Order No. 20 addresses gender-based discrimination, GBV, and sexual harassment in the workplace; however, implementation of the act is lacking. In Port Moresby, the PNG government and the United Nations worked together to provide women-only public buses to reduce sexual harassment on public transportation₃₇. 

Firearms Amended Act 2022
Just ahead of the 2022 elections on May 16, 2022, an amendment to the Firearms Act₃₈ was passed and certified to increase the maximum penalty to life imprisonment for “manufacturing of homemade guns, Section 7A, illegal ownership and possession of fire-arms Section 6, illegal possession and use of firearms Section 7, illegal possession of prohibited fire-arms Section 5 and ownership and possession of machine guns Section 62,” as outlined by Prime Minister Marape₃₉.  Despite the tougher penalties to curb gun violence, a recognized problem during elections, it was still prevalent during the 2022 election period.

International Commitments
PNG has ratified a number of international treaties and conventions relating to gender equality. These include the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW, 1995); International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (2008); International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (2008); Revised Pacific Platform for Action on Advancement of Women and Gender Equality; and Beijing Platform for Action. However, PNG’s implementation of these commitments is questionable. For example, the only CEDAW report the country produced was in 2010.

Freedom of Expression
PNG’s Constitution provides for the freedom of peaceful assembly and association, and the government generally respects these rights. It also has generally respected the constitutional provision for freedom of expression, including for the press and other media, although there have been reports of journalists being harassed by supporters of parliamentarians for reporting on politically contentious issues. This has led journalists to self-censor when reporting on political events₄₀.  In August 2022, notices in two daily newspapers stated that the prime minister would no longer accept direct inquiries from the media and that journalists₄₁ would be required to submit questions in writing. The following month, more restrictive procedures were announced for visa applications by foreign journalists.  These developments are troubling signs of a closing civic space. On a positive note, while PNG law allows for investigation and criminal prosecution for the publication of defamatory material, there were no reports in 2022 of the law being used as a political weapon against journalists or opposition political figures—unlike in previous years. Nor did the government restrict or disrupt internet access or censor online content, and there were no credible reports that it had monitored private online communications without appropriate legal authority₄₂.  

Women journalists in PNG are at risk of both public and private violence. Prominent examples included the 2014 abduction and sexual assault of three women journalists  and the death in PNG of a well-known woman journalist₄₃ in 2017 who was investigated for a possible connection to domestic violence₄₄.  In 2020, the Melanesian Media Freedom Forum convened a session on the unique challenges that women journalists face in gaining representation in the media workforce, having their voices heard in the media, and experiencing threats to their personal safety₄₅.  In 2022, a woman journalist in PNG was attacked in public during the election period₄₆.