Women’s rights
Despite Papua New Guinea ratifying the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in 1995,[2] Papua New Guinea still remains one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a woman or girl,[3] highlighting the government’s failure to implement effective policies to prevent and respond to gender-based violence and discrimination.
During the 2015 UPR, Papua New Guinea supported 49 recommendations on women’s rights, including to “ensure access to adequate shelter, psychosocial, legal, and health-care services for survivors of domestic violence, including in rural areas” (104.124),[4] and “to adopt measures that all cases of violence against women, including sorcery-related and sexual violence are duly investigated and the perpetrators prosecuted and punished” (104.115)[5]. Papua New Guinea supported the recommendation to fully implement the Family Protection Act 2003 (104.99) (see, 104.100, 104.101, 104.132, 104.107, 104.133),[6] and finalize the Family and Sexual Violence Strategy without delay (104.99).[7]