WUNRN
PAPUA NEW GUINEA - NETWORK FOR LESS
ISOLATION, SUPPORT
& PROTECTION OF WOMEN HUMAN
RIGHTS DEFENDERS
AWID
- 08/07/2011
A new network of women human rights
defenders (WHRDs) in
By Analía Penchaszadeh
AWID - When a women’s rights and peace
activist from the Eastern Highlands of PNG was assaulted and received death
threats, she was able to call on new friends for immediate support. The
activist in question was accused of sorcery as a direct result of her
activities to pursue justice for a woman who had been killed. She contacted the
Highlands WHRD network, where one member offered her safety while others
contacted the Urgent Action Fund to request support for her
relocation to another province in order to escape the threats. As Indai Sajor
tells this story, she concludes, “… without the network, she would be dead.”
PNG is located in the southwestern region
of the
Communities in the
The
Tribal conflict and sorcery
A principal source of tribal conflict in
the region is accusations of sorcery. As discussed in the OHCHR report on Armed Tribal Conflict and Sorcery in the Highlands of
Papua New Guinea, “when a death, sickness or an accident
occurs, it is common for community members to explain it as having been caused
by the use of sorcery.” The OHCHR report cites the PNG police statistics that
women are six times more likely to be accused of sorcery than men.
When people are accused of sorcery, they
are brutally attacked and often killed. According to the OHCHR report, victims
“are subjected to cruel and inhuman treatment like beatings with barbed wire,
having their bones broken, burning with red hot metal, rape, suspending people
over fire, cutting off body parts, amputation of limbs and dragging victims
behind moving vehicles. Among the murders reported were those victims that had
been buried alive, beheaded, choked to death, thrown over cliffs into rivers or
caves, starved, axed, electrocuted, suffocated with smoke, forced to drink
petrol, stoned or shot.”
Support for women human rights defenders
WHRDs work to convince community members
to use the justice system – whether a formal court or a traditional justice
system – for addressing accusations of sorcery, as an alternative to violence.
WHRDs who denounce sorcery-related violence are themselves accused of sorcery
and risk being attacked and killed. There are few statistics on violence
against WHRDs because many of these attacks are not reported and therefore not
documented. An Amnesty International Report states that in
the highland provinces of PNG, “more than 50 reported cases of sorcery-related
deaths occurred in 2008 alone, and local authorities believe that many more
murders may have gone unreported.” Both Amnesty International and Human Rights
Watch have raised concerns about sorcery- related killings of women since 2009.
It is within this context that the
“Highland Women’s Human Rights Movement Network” was launched in March 2011. It
began with a training session organized by OHCHR with 24 representatives from
women’s organizations who came together from seven provinces in the region.
Participants explored WHRD-centered approaches to risk assessment, protection
measures, and rapid response. They learned about information gathering and
documentation, engaging with UN human rights mechanisms, and conforming
national legislative frameworks with international standards.
The new network hopes to end the isolation
of WHRDs and create a protection system for women who are at risk for their
peacemaking work. They are coordinating documentation of cases of human rights
violations, conducting advocacy activities to promote women’s rights, and
creating communications mechanisms to support and protect each other in
emergencies. The Oxfam PNG Highlands office is providing secretariat support, helping
the network members break through communication barriers.
A key priority for the network is to
create protection and support mechanisms for WHRDs at risk. Network members use
their cell phones to alert others of urgent situations, and they are able to
tap into the resources of Oxfam and the OHCHR to deal with emergencies. They
are also developing a list of service providers to enable other WHRDs in the
Collecting and presenting reliable data on
human rights violations was identified as important to be able to jointly and
effectively advocate on human rights issues with regional and international
mechanisms. As a result, WHRDs who participated in the initial training are now
documenting such cases, including killings for accusations of sorcery and armed
tribal conflict.
The network is also planning a Roadshow
later in the year to raise awareness about women’s human rights and issues of
sexual violence. The Roadshow will be part of the international 16 Days of
Activism campaign and will involve activities in each of the East Highlands
provinces. An important component of the Roadshow is to highlight the 2012 PNG
National Elections with the goal of preventing violence during the election
season and promoting women’s rights to vote and to run for office.
What Next
The OHCHR has sponsored similar trainings
for WHRDs in other areas of PNG (Bougainville) and in other countries in the
Pacific (