“We the Papua New Guinea Community and the International Community are united in this call to action. We demand the PNG Government takes immediate and sustained action to prevent and protect women and children from torture, murder and all acts of violence and human rights abuses.
The latest victim is just six (6) years old. Last week in PNG, in an act of extreme depravity, a group of men burned her with hot metal to persuade her to confess to practising witchcraft – she was lucky, she was rescued before she was murdered.
Not so lucky was her mother Kepari Leniata, a name you may remember. Five years ago, a group of vengeful men tortured this young mother; including unspeakable acts of sexual violence. When they had finished torturing Kepari, they threw her on a pile of tyres and burned her alive. Watched by a crowd with camera phones; no one helped her. Her known assailants were never brought to justice and, since then, the extreme violence against women in PNG has only escalated with perpetrators rarely, if ever, prosecuted.
In PNG, violence against women is a low‐risk, and largely tolerated crime. Will PNG now extend its tolerance to the torture of a child? The PNG government responds to each new atrocity against females (and they are sustained and many) with another piece of legislation that’s never used or the adoption of a combatting strategy never implemented.
THE LAW DEMANDS THESE CRIMINALS BE BROUGHT TO JUSTICE – YET THEY NEVER ARE. THIS HAS TO CHANGE.
In 2018, PNG will host APEC. Australia is providing security and other aid for the meeting – with PNG just over 3 kilometres from Australia at its closest point, can Australia afford to ignore the atrocities against women and now children right on their doorstep and maintain ‘business as usual’? Can the other APEC countries?
WHAT CAN YOU DO? Please sign our petition – let the PNG government know that when women and children are allowed to be tortured and burned alive with impunity, it is NOT business as usual – it’s a national emergency.”
- We call on the PNG Government to immediately act upon the Family Protection Act and the Lukautim Pikinini Act to arrest and prosecute the perpetrators of the recent torture of the young girl from Enga Province.
- We call upon the PNG Government to increase funding to support the Taskforce against sorcery accusations and gendered based violence.
- We call upon the PNG Government to provide increased funding to support civil groups addressing Accusation Based Violence and Gendered Based Violence in PNG society.
We, the undersigned demand immediate action from the PNG government to prevent and protect women and children from torture, murder and all acts of violence and human rights abuses.”
This is not going to be easy and it will take many years to lower the incidence
of it. Start with the Kids. Make it a big issue in all the schools and start at a very young age. Encourage large companies to push the subject in all of their meetings . Look long term as it is endemic in many remote societies and the cities as well