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By VERONICA MANUK
THE Deputy Speaker of Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) Fracisca
Semoso has called for a fair representation of women in court as most of
the cases were being thrown out.
Ms Semoso made the call during the Law and Justice Sector’s workshop in
Kokopo yesterday.
She said violence against women was one of the common problems in PNG
but when such cases ended up in court, many of them were thrown out as
women do not have proper lawyers to fight their cases.
She said about 99.9% of the court in PNG were won by men because they
have the money to hire a lawyer.
Therefore, she called upon the law and justice sector to provide a
special lawyer for women to assist them in their cases involving
domestic violence.
In response, Public Solicitor Frazer Pitpit said the public solicitors
based in provinces were always there to help the little people like
women who could not afford to get a lawyer to represent them.
He said for the case of Buka, there was a position advertised for public
solicitor to fill in the vacancy.
Meanwhile, apart from the workshop, there was also the National
Coordination Mechanism meeting in Kokopo involving the senior members of
Law and Justice Sector in the country.
Minister for Attorney General Dr Allan Marat said he was aware of the
‘White Paper’ which contained the carefully thought-out and selected
massive changes to revolutionise the whole Law and Justice Sector in
PNG.
He said this was endorsed by former government, which is also the
current one.
Dr Marat said that the paper was a way forward for country and its
people.
 
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