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I. Summary

They are the ones looking after the law! Why do they do these things like criminals?

—Woman raped at gunpoint by police in Port Moresby, September 3, 2005

I don’t think police understand what the word “police” means. They should be helping people, protecting people. They should face the fact that their uniform and vehicle means that they should protect people’s lives, not abuse them.

—Man, Port Moresby, September 3, 2005

Police in Papua New Guinea are continuing to meet the country’s serious crime problem with routine wanton violence and abuse. Such tactics have proven ineffective as crime control, and have deeply eroded the public trust and cooperation crucial to policing.

In 2005, Human Rights Watch issued “‘Making Their Own Rules’: Police Beatings, Rape, and Torture of Children in Papua New Guinea,” a 124-page report documenting widespread police violence, including torture and rape, against persons in their custody. Children, we found, are frequent targets, as are sex workers and men and boys suspected of homosexual conduct. Children are detained as a matter of course in police lockup with adults (even when separate space is available), where they are at risk of rape and other forms of violence.

In August 2006, Human Rights Watch returned to Papua New Guinea to assess developments since our original research, particularly in juvenile justice, where recently there have been signs of advances. Our investigations revealed that police continue to routinely use excessive force, sexual violence, and torture against individuals in custody, including children. Most police who commit abuses face little or no penalty, either administratively or in a court of law. The government of Papua New Guinea must take immediate steps to address police abuse and the impunity that supports it.Our findings should be taken as a call to action by the current administration, and by the government to be elected in 2007.

We found a few notable and encouraging exceptions to what is otherwise an essentially unreformed system. An intergovernmental juvenile justice working group continues to make progress in establishing a juvenile justice system. A few individual police officers have stepped forward to try to put this system in place. Several juvenile magistrates have promised to implement checks on abuses. Outside of the government, some nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are attempting to address aspects of police violence, for example through educating police about the concerns of men and boys who engage in homosexual conduct. While these efforts have yet to produce demonstrable change in police treatment of children, they hold promise.

These limited gains are extremely fragile and hinge on a few committed individuals. But they also demonstrate that change in this system is possible. Human Rights Watch calls on the government of Papua New Guinea, with the help of its international supporters, to do all it can to entrench these developments.

Serious problems persist. First, officers and commanders continue to enjoy near-total impunity for violence. In 2005, Human Rights Watch identified this factor as key to enabling police violence. This remains the case. While it is not completely unknown for officers to be sanctioned, dismissed, or prosecuted, the frequency of these punishments is so low compared with the scale of violations as to render non-existent any deterrent effect.

Second, the abuses perpetuated by the police contribute to a quickly escalating HIV epidemic. Sexual violence, fear of police that impedes the reporting of sexual violence and other crimes, prison conditions which may facilitate risk behaviors rather than provide information and the means for HIV prevention, harassment and abuse of sex workers and of boys and men who are perceived to be homosexual, as well as the harassment of HIV outreach workers and others carrying condoms, represent serious obstacles to Papua New Guinea’s goal of decreasing HIV incidence and stemming the worst AIDS epidemic in the South Pacific.

Extremely poor resourcing is often used to blunt criticisms of police ineffectiveness and violence. Yet this is no excuse for torture and rape. In 2006, police enjoyed much-needed new human and financial resources. Several hundred police officers were recruited, the first in some five years. New monies were allocated for police pensions, salary increases, housing, and other benefits. While far from sufficient to solve the needs of the force, the provision of new resources is all the more reason that police should be held accountable for human rights abuses.

Moreover, other excuses, for example that police need more training, are belied by the facts. Many of the police who have received training in good policing still abuse: as one man put it, “Police know about human rights but they still beat us up.”¹ To be effective, training must be accompanied by consequences for failing to follow it.

International donors and others have repeatedly told Human Rights Watch that police violence cannot be addressed because violence is culturally acceptable in Papua New Guinea’s and there is no public demand for change in the police force. Our research (and that of others) indicates that this is not true.

Many citizens do face high levels of violence, with some commentators noting that Papua New Guinea’s rapid modernization and urbanization has caused increased crime, child sexual abuse, and other forms of violence. This violence is possible in part because so few people of any sort are prosecuted for it, not because ordinary citizens believe this to be an unchallengeable reality. As we noted in our 2005 report, social factors also contribute to police violence, such as the practice of “paybacks” that makes police fear retaliation for reporting on a colleague, an emphasis on “bigmen” that encourages strongarm tactics, and the wantok system that demands loyalty to one’s clan or family group over all other obligations. Numerous Papua New Guineans describe police violence as so widespread and entrenched as to be “normal”—that is, what they expect from police.

However, the description of police violence as “normal” should not be understood to mean that Papua New Guineans find it acceptable, desirable, or inevitable, judging from what Papua New Guineans (including individuals in the government trying to change police practices) told Human Rights Watch. As one woman said, referring to the July 2006 rape of a six-year-old girl in a police station: “I hate the police on duty—that we go to them for help and they are turning around and doing that!”² Women marched publicly following the beating and gang rape of women during a police raid on a guesthouse in 2004. In 2005, the Catholic Bishops Conference issued strong statements on police violence against children, and the Youth Against Corruption Association held a members forum on police and children. Numerous letters to newspaper editors highlight the issue.

But people become discouraged when complaint mechanisms fail to work and when complaining brings them further trouble. A teacher with fresh bruises around her eyes from a recent mugging described the dilemma for ordinary people: She was scared of the boys on the street, she said, but the police beating them up was clearly not working. And she was too afraid of and disillusioned with the police to report the crime to them. Another solution, she told us, is needed.³

We recommend that the government of Papua New Guinea take the following immediate steps. First, the government should strengthen the internal affairs directorate of the police, penalize officers who do not cooperate with it, and investigate alleged abuses and delays in implementing dismissal orders. It should also improve the speed and efficiency with which cases of criminal action by police are sent to the public prosecutor. This problem will not diminish unless perpetrators are prosecuted.

Second, the government should make greater and more creative efforts to improve the capacity of the Ombudsman Commission to address police violence. The Police Commissioner should conclude the memorandum of understanding currently being negotiated with the commission giving the latter oversight over the most serious internal police disciplinary cases. The government should allocate additional resources for the commission to take on human rights cases. In the medium term, the government should consider the creation of a police ombudsman as recommended by the 2004 administrative review of police. A long-term measure could be the establishment of a national human rights commission, which is currently stalled. Papua New Guinea should, in the meantime, make every effort to strengthen existing accountability mechanisms.

Third, the government should strengthen and expand the juvenile justice system throughout the country. The police should better cooperate with the juvenile policy monitoring unit, which in turn should rigorously monitor police treatment of children. The police should also establish and fully support additional juvenile reception centers throughout the country. They should give the final approval necessary to enable the already-trained juvenile court officers to start working, and these officers should become independent advocates for children who are in conflict with the law. The police should also hold shift officers-in-charge to their responsibility for ensuring that children are not physically abused, are separated from adults, and are provided medical care when needed. All magistrates and judges should monitor for police violence, and visit places where children are detained.

Fourth, the government should improve access for victims of police violence to medical, legal, counseling, and other support services.

Finally, international donors should identify ways to support the above recommendations. In particular, donors, some of whom already provide some support for civil society organizations, could better assist groups that are working to address police violence, to educate the public about police responsibilities, and to help victims obtain services and navigate the public complaint process. As is demonstrated by the work of Transparency International-PNG and other groups working on corruption in Papua New Guinea, nongovernmental entities play an important role in supporting and facilitating public outcry.

Police beatings, rape, and torture are not only human rights violations, they betray the public’s trust and nullify the protection from violence in the community that citizens should expect from police. Two years after Human Rights Watch first documented these problems, ordinary Papua New Guineans are afraid to walk city streets at night, and, as one woman church member put it, “The police are the last people we would go to if we have a problem!”⁴

Methods

Since 2004, Human Rights Watch has conducted investigations into police violence in six locations in Papua New Guinea, interviewed more than 275 people about police violence, and visited 14 places where children are detained (police stations, correctional institutions, and remand centers), as well as police stations that do not have lockup.

In our most recent visit, in August 2006, Human Rights Watch visited Port Moresby, the capital, and Lae, the country’s second largest city. (Previously we conducted investigations in Alotau, Goroka, Kokopo, Port Moresby, and Wewak.) We interviewed more than 90 persons, including children, 18- and 19-year-olds who described recent contact with the police when they were children, sex workers, street vendors, and boys and men who have male sexual partners (some of these boys and men identify themselves as gay, others do not). We also interviewed medical personnel and NGO staff working with children in conflict with the law, providing services to victims of police violence, and offering HIV/AIDS prevention and services. We spoke with officials at places where children are detained; juvenile magistrates; members of the government’s law and justice sector committee and Lae’s juvenile justice working group; staff of the Department of Justice and Attorney General, Correctional Services, and the Ombudsman Commission; the Minister of Justice; the public prosecutor; and representatives of international donors, including the Australian government. Within the police, we spoke with an assistant commissioner, several police station commanders, cell guards, officers responsible for the two newly operational juvenile reception centers, a police prosecutor, officers working in internal investigations units in Lae and Port Moresby,⁵ and other officers, as well as the Minister of Police. We visited Lae’s Town police station; Port Moresby’s Boroko, Nine-Mile, Town, and Waigani police stations; the juvenile wing of Buimo prison; and Erap Boys Town (a post-conviction juvenile detention facility). Where relevant, the report also draws on interviews we conducted in September 2005, right after the release of “Making Their Own Rules,” with government officials including with the then-Commissioner of police and with victims of police violence.

Except where indicated in the notes, interviews with victims were conducted alone or with a translator. All children, survivors of police violence, and others who did not wish to be named were given an assurance of anonymity and confidentiality, and this report uses pseudonyms to protect them. Interviewees were provided no remuneration.

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