publications

II. Background

The Situation as Reported in 2005

In 2005, Human Rights Watch found that brutal beatings, rape, and torture were widespread police practices in Papua New Guinea. Children reported being kicked and beaten with gun butts, crowbars, wooden batons, fists, rubber hoses, and chairs. Boys described being shot and knifed while in custody. Girls were subjected by police to sexual abuse, including rape—frequently pack rape (gang rape)—in police stations, vehicles, barracks, and other locations. Boys and men also reported sexual abuse by police, including oral and anal rape and attempts to force them to have sex with other detainees, and sexual humiliation. Girls and women told us that they had been forced to chew and swallow condoms.

Although police violence was endemic and adults described similar experiences, we found that children’s particular vulnerability and the assumption that boys and young men are “raskols”—members of criminal gangs—made children especially easy targets. Police additionally targeted sex workers (many of whom begin working in their early teens), men and boys perceived to be homosexual, and street vendors.

At police stations, many children were detained for weeks or months in squalid conditions that violated basic international standards. Most children we spoke with said that police provided them with no medical care, even when seriously injured. In addition, children were routinely mixed with adults in police lockup.

Despite the seriousness of the problem, we found little or no willingness on the part of police to investigate, prosecute, or otherwise punish its members. Government mechanisms external to the police that might have held police accountable and provided victims with redress—the public solicitor’s office, the Ombudsman Commission, and civil claims against the state—were not effective in diminishing police violence.6

Papua New Guinea’s Legal Obligations

Papua New Guinea’s international legal obligations prohibit torture; cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; rape; and sexual assault. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Papua New Guinea ratified in 1993, states that “No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”7 Violence in custody by police or other detainees also violates a child's right under the Convention on the Rights of the Child to protection from “all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child.”8 The Constitution of Papua New Guinea similarly prohibits “torture (whether physical or mental), or . . . treatment or punishment that is cruel or otherwise inhuman, or is inconsistent with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person.”9

By ratifying the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1995, Papua New Guinea agreed to protect women and girls from sexual and other forms of gender-based violence perpetrated by state agents and private actors alike.10 As part of its obligation to prevent violence against women, the government is required to ensure that female victims of violence have access to an effective remedy for the violation of their rights.11 The Convention on the Rights of the Child also establishes girls' right to protection from discrimination based on sex and their right to equal protection before the law.12

International law requires that children be detained only as a measure of last resort, for the shortest appropriate period of time.13 The best interests of the child must be a primary consideration.14 When they are detained, children must be provided adequate medical care and be separated from adults, under both international standards and Papua New Guinea’s laws.15




6 Human Rights Watch, “Making Their Own Rules": Police Beatings, Rape, and Torture of Children in Papua New Guinea, vol. 17, no. 8(C), September 2005, http://hrw.org/reports/2005/png0905/. In 2006, several prominent local and international organizations published additional evidence of police violence against women and in rural areas. See Amnesty International, “Papua New Guinea: Violence Against Women: Not Inevitable, Never Acceptable!” AI Index: ASA 34/002/2006, September 4, 2006, http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGASA340022006 (accessed October 9, 2006); and Australian Conservation Foundation and Center for Environmental Law and Community Rights (CELCOR), “Bulldozing Progress: Human Rights Abuses and Corruption in Papua New Guinea’s Large Scale Logging Industry,” 2006 (charging that companies paid police who arbitrarily beat, detained, and intimidated landowners). See also Bob Burton, “Canadian Firm Admits to Killings at PNG Gold Mine,” IPS, November 18, 2005.

7 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), adopted November 20, 1989, G.A. Res. 44/25, annex, 44 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 49) at 167, U.N. Doc. A/44/49 (1989), entered into force September 2, 1990), art. 37. Although Papua New Guinea is not a party to the Convention against Torture or the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which prohibit torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, the prohibition is widely considered a jus cogens  norm, that is, a binding and peremptory normal of customary international law from which no derogation is permitted. See Human Rights Watch, Making Their Own Rules, pp. 49-54.

8 Convention on the Rights of the Child, art. 19.

9 Constitution of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, art. 36.

10 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted December 18, 1979, G.A. res. 34/180, 34 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 46) at 193, U.N. Doc. A/34/46, entered into force September 3, 1981. Papua New Guinea ratified the treaty on January 12, 1995.

11 CEDAW, in article 2, obligates states to “establish legal protection of the rights of women on an equal basis with men and to ensure through competent national tribunals and other public institutions the effective protection of women against any act of discrimination.”

12 Convention on the Rights of the Child, art. 2(1).

13 Ibid., art. 37; See also U.N. Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty, para. 2; U.N. Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (“The Bejing Rules”), G.A. res. 40.33, annex, 40 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 53), p. 207, U.N. Doc A/40/52 (1985), para. 13; and Human Rights Watch, Making Their Own Rules, pp. 72-76.

14 Convention on the Rights of the Child, art. 3.

15 UN Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty, para. 29; The Bejing Rules, para. 13.4; Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, adopted August 30, 1955 by the First United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, held at Geneva in 1955, and approved by the UN Economic and Social Council by resolution 663 C (XXIV), July 31, 1957, and 2076, May 13, 1977, para. 8(d); Constitution of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, art. 37; Juvenile Courts Act, secs. 19-21, 47, 51; Magisterial Service of Papua New Guinea, Juvenile Court Protocol for Magistrates, 2004.