Special Focus
  • Human Rights in Papua New Guinea

    Papua New Guinea’s significant oil, gas, and gold reserves are powering strong economic growth. In the last four years, the country’s gross domestic product has doubled. Yet poor governance and corruption prevent this wealth having greater impact on the economic and social rights of ordinary citizens. Large-scale extractive projects have generated environmental and human rights concerns that the government has failed to address. These extractive projects have also led to violations of landowners’ rights, with the ensuing disputes over compensating landowners triggering protests and occasional violence. Police and security forces can commit abuses with impunity and violence against women is rampant.

    Read the 2013 World Report chapter on Papua New Guinea >>


  • Papua New Guinea: End Endemic Violence Against Women
    Jan 29, 2015
    Papua New Guinea remains one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a woman, highlighting the government’s failure to enforce legal protections against gender based violence and discrimination.
  • Indonesia: Security Forces Kill Five in Papua
    Dec 10, 2014
    Police and military personnel fired live ammunition at about 800 peaceful demonstrators, including women and children, in the town of Enarotali in Panai regency on December 8.
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Papua New Guinea

  • Papua New Guinea: End Endemic Violence Against Women
    Jan 29, 2015
    Papua New Guinea remains one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a woman, highlighting the government’s failure to enforce legal protections against gender based violence and discrimination.
  • HRW Submission to the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA)
    Jan 14, 2015
    Human Rights Watch welcomes the opportunity to review the draft IRMA Standard for Responsible Mining. Below are recommendations based on research conducted by Human Rights Watch in various countries. Human Rights Watch has carried out extensive research on business and human rights issues, including on human rights and mining in India, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Ghana, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mali, Nigeria, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
  • Indonesia: Security Forces Kill Five in Papua
    Dec 10, 2014
    Police and military personnel fired live ammunition at about 800 peaceful demonstrators, including women and children, in the town of Enarotali in Panai regency on December 8.
  • Mercury Treaty: Seize Chance to Sign at UN Event
    Sep 23, 2014
    Governments should make an urgent commitment to protect people from the harmful effects of mercury by signing and ratifying the new Minamata Convention on Mercury. The Minamata Convention, adopted in October 2013, obliges governments to reduce mercury use and emissions globally and is an important tool to protect the right to health.
  • World Health Assembly: Pledge to Act on Mercury
    May 20, 2014
    Health ministers should pledge to take comprehensive action to prevent and treat the negative health effects of mercury, a toxic chemical. The World Health Assembly is scheduled to discuss a resolution on the new international treaty on mercury, the Minamata Convention, on May 21, 2014.
  • Papua New Guinea: Address Police Brutality
    Jan 21, 2014
    The failure of Papua New Guinea’s government to address longstanding police brutality led to further abuses against criminal suspects and others in 2013.
  • 'Enhanced screening' means enhanced trauma for asylum seekers
    Nov 25, 2013

    Asylum seekers fleeing Sri Lanka, a country obviously unsafe for many of its citizens, deserve to have their claims heard to the same extent as any other refugees

  • Letter to Prime Minister Tony Abbott Re: Human Rights in Foreign and Domestic Policy
    Oct 14, 2013
    Human Rights Watch is a nongovernment organization that monitors and reports on international human rights, refugee, and humanitarian law issues in more than 90 countries around the world.
  • Mercury Convention "Must Be Brought to Life"
    Jan 21, 2013
    This weekend, more than 140 governments agreed on the text for a new legally binding convention on mercury, a highly toxic metal. It has taken three years and many compromises to get here. What often seemed like a dry and bureaucratic process – delegates arguing over nuance during long night sessions – has very real implications for millions of people around the globe.
  • Mercury Treaty: Last Chance to Address Health Effects
    Jan 10, 2013
    A proposed international treaty to address the damaging effects of mercury should include specific provisions to protect the health of children and other vulnerable populations, Human Rights Watch said today. Governments are to meet in Geneva beginning January 13, 2013, for a fifth and final round of talks for the treaty. Mercury is a toxic metal that attacks the central nervous system and is particularly harmful to children.
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