Report: PNG has high domestic violence level
Tue Nov 25, 2008 12:00pm
A series of reports have revealed that women in Papua New Guinea
experience very high levels of domestic and sexual violence.
The reports released by the Australian Government focuses on
addressing violence against women in Melanesia and East Timor.
Currently, work is being undertaken by civil society groups and the
Government to curb the problem but challenges to ensuring women are
safe in PNG still remain.
Australia, which is PNG's largest aid donor has pledged action to
increase women's access to justice and support services to prevent
violence against women.
Its also committed to helping its neighboring country to reach the
Millennium Development goals including gender equality and empowering
women.
The series of reports produced by AusAID were released to coincide
with today's International Day of Elimination of Violence Against
Women.
Port Moresby women to mark day
Women in Port Moresby will join others worldwide to mark
International Day of Elimination of Violence Against Women with a
brief march amongst other activities.
The march is organized by staff of the Department of Community
Development.
Speaking in the lead up to these celebrations, Minister responsible
Dame Carol Kidu said more has to be done in PNG to address violence
against women in all communities.
She said that a lot of awareness is also needed to change this
situation as many domestic violence cases hardly get reported to law
enforcing agencies including the courts.
" Whether we like it or not, that's the situation. Even though we say
it's a crime, often it is within the family so we got to really work
awareness as a family in a community level," Dame Carol said. |
