By Petrus GAND
​
PAPUA New Guineans have a serious issue with gender-based violence (GBV).
Our male-dominated society shapes our personality and perception of the world we know.
Environmental condition is one of the many factors that shape our individual behaviours such as media, cultural beliefs, and access to information, family, religion, experiences and peers.
Western societies perceive everyone as equal regardless of their gender.
They understand that they don’t have any chance to decide on their gender; it is what it is.

By  Petrus GAND

We should not turn a blind eye on the issues affecting the lives of our mothers and sisters, nor shall we sit and spectate.

The UNO and its institutions such as WHO and Amnesty International envisioned that every person must enjoy all the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards.

Women, Peace and Security activities are not standalone efforts but an integral part of regional peace and security discussions, in line with regional efforts of promoting gender equality.

But the modern state, combined with some enduring aspects of traditional cultures and Christianity, has perpetuated patriarchal beliefs, ideas, attitudes and institutions. This facilitates gender inequality to be a societal norm. It may be an existential-threat on the lives of females, it is also overlooked and socially accepted.  

By Tony Charles Wattz Kerowa
Young girls often make the worst mistakes when they  rush into falling for a perfect life and easy way out of material inconveniences they are faced with by making rush decision which often turns sour. 
In search of a better life, younge girls falling for luxury such as Sexy cars, smart phones, free aeroplane tickets, hotel accommodations, believing in conniving sweet talks promising the whole world as a bed of rose by the very experienced sugar daddy. 
They fall for the wallet full of cash or fat bank account by throwing away their dignity, destroying their Education (their only key to unlock their future opportunity to rise up from poverty), disrespecting their parents and guardians hard work and investment to see them become somebody better in the future. They abruptly destroy themselves by cheaply ending up by tangling themselves with married man who otherwise older than their fathers and are even two or three times older than their age who's children are older.  

PNG PRIME Minister James Marape says those who continue to commit crimes in the pretext of sorcery must be arrested and charged by police.Marape was responding to questions asked by The National in relation to the death of Mary Kopari who was killed by an angry mob over allegations of sorcery in Margarima, Hela.“People shouldn’t be killing women or girls over sorcery, as far as Papua New Guinea is concerned,” he said. “Killing someone accused of sorcery is illegal, so police should be doing their job.“We discourage anyone from killing another over sorcery, if you feel that someone has caused an offence, there are appropriate charges to be laid against that person.”

A SURVIVOR of gender-based violence told a special parliamentary committee inquiry into the issue that she had been waiting for almost four years for a court trial on her case.
Hannah Joku told inquiry chairman Charles Abel and his committee members that a delay in justice for victims and survivors of gender based violence (GBV) had led to some women losing their lives in PNG.
Joku said her case was yet to be heard in the National Court.
She lodged a complaint with police on Sept 17, 2018 and an arrest was made. The case, involving two counts of gender-based harassment and one count of rape, was committed for trial in the National Court on Aug 24, 2019.
She shared her story during the first GBV summit at Parliament House on Aug 24 last year.

By Ruth J Kissam 

​This is the beautiful young mother and wife Imelda Tupi Timanda who was found dead, wrapped in canvas in her doctor husband's vehicle  at the Wara Kagul  checkpoint by police. *edited* according to EMTV news, her husband Dr. Simon Temo drove the vehicle with her remains towards Hagen from Mendi with the hope of ditching her body along the highway when Police at the checkpoint at Kaugel noticed the canvas while doing routine checks. Upon confirming it was human remains stopped the doctor and they called for reinforcement. Dr. Temo is alluded to have asked them to allow him to pass through offering to bribe the officers nearly K200,000.00. Fortunately, they refused and backup arrived and Dr. Simon Temo and his accomplices were arrested and are behind bars now while his wife's body is in the hospital morgue in Hagen.

​Since August 2019 I have been extremely honored to serve as Miss Papua New Guinea/Pacific Islands.  During my reign I had the opportunity to: serve as a youth representative when the United Nations Deputy Secretary General visited; be the first Miss Papua New Guinea/Pacific Islands to visit the women’s unit at Bomana Prison; and used my voice to advocate for the empowerment of women through sport.  
When my term ended in late 2020, rather than hand the crown to my successor, the pandemic presented other plans.  A pageant could not be held and therefore when asked to continue my service as Miss Papua New Guinea/Pacific Islands, I willingly agreed.   

The Papua New Guinea Law Society condemns all forms of gender and family based violence.

In a statement by the Lawyers’ peak body, it said that the prevalence of the problem calls for renewed and concerted efforts by all concerned to weed out this ill from our society.

The National Government’s Policy statement on the issue was the culmination of great work by relevant Government agencies and development partners to understand the problem and suggest workable solutions as an inclusive whole of government response on gender based violence, which followed through with important legislative reforms and programs.

By Dulciana Somare-Brash, former Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare's daughter

The death of a very young mother after a life of violent abuse has triggered much public condemnation and inadvertently some soul searching by our people online and elsewhere. Last week a woman carrying a placard at a related protest came under attack online for daring to reveal the underbelly of the broader issue of Gender Based Violence (GBV), Family sexual violence and abuse in Papua New Guinea (PNG). She stated as pictured: “PNG is not a safe place to be a female.”

Commentators online felt that that was a matter of opinion; in fact many suggested her opinion was the wrong one. Relegating her lived experiences and the stories of so many women and girls to mere futile complaints that betrayed PNGs reality. Both men and women online were horrified at the confronting placard.

'The New Year Celebrations did not go down well with one family in Port Moresby.

Lero Pat from Mendi, in the Southern Highlands Province, almost lost her life when she was repeatedly bashed up by her son-in-law on New Year’s Night.
Her son-in-law is a prominent Lawyer and Principal Founder of a reknowned Law Firm.

As millions welcomed in the New Year with celebration, it was a horrific experience for Lero Pat, a mother of five young girls from Mendi in the Southern Highlands Province, who resides in Port Moresby.

She visited the EMTV Studio to tell her of her ordeal.

Lero claims it’s not the first time her son-in-law has bashed her up badly. This has been happening since her daughter married a prominent lawyer about three years ago. Lero claims one of her younger daughters was also allegedly raped by this lawyer.

Lero was rushed to Port Moresby General Hospital where she received eight stitches to her head and it’s a sad case for her as she will have one of her fingers amputated, all the bones being crushed by the tyre rim that was used to repeatedly bash her.

She has reported the matter at the Boroko Police Station, but they required a Medical report. She got that done, and now wants police to deal with the matter and ensure perpetrators of violence against women are put behind bars.'