Amend laws to protect womenfolk

Letters

WHILE everyone is blaming the perpetrators of gender-based violence (GBV), I would like to equally put a blame on our government for allowing GBV cases to go on for a very long time now.
Successive governments since independence have not done enough to minimise and eradicate GBV.
Systems and institutions built to protect and uphold laws and especially GBV have turned a blind eye to their core functions.
GBV is already part of the contemporary culture we live in and is becoming normal in our society.
Everybody knows about it.
The legislators – the mandated MPs who are supposed to make and amend laws and vigorously fight for woman and girls in parliament to strengthen institutions have turned a blind eye to GBV.
This inaction by the government and its institutions create a conducive environment for men’s egocentric attitude to develop into maturity and replicate from one end of the country to another.
A critical look at Jenellyn’s story and other countless victims of GBV, the same conclusion seems to be drawn – government institutions have ignored their core duties.
Government must make it mandatory for GBV cases reaching any health facility or institution in this country to be reported directly to police.
There are instances of police sexually abusing women and girls.
Than how can you expect a lone woman or girl to front up and report to police?
If police can accept bribery from perpetrators and knowingly play delay tactics, how can woman and girls seek justice?
After receiving a report, how long does it take for police to apprehend a perpetrator and charge him?
The police department needs a complete overhaul and turnaround in the way it operates to give some confidence back to women and girls and those without money.
The Government has not created a safe avenue where woman and girls can be kept safe and the state goes after perpetrators to get them locked up and rehabilitate them or have them serve jail time.
Guidance and counselling in marriage are a total failure in this country.
The government is doing nothing; if it is doing something, then it is not doing it right to change the narrative, the culture and attitudes of men. It is therefore, knowingly allowing GBV to thrive in our society.
Papua New Guinean family units have disintegrated to an extent where money becomes a powerful tool that drives common sense out the window and a new culture of accepting violence to women and girls is becoming a norm.
There is no concern for life of a sister or mother when money is dished out.
What kind of a sick society have we gotten ourselves into?
Even systems of rehabilitation of sick human beings are never existent in our society.
Our society is a sick society that makes it completely difficult for justice for the vulnerable.
Women, girls and children are hard hit.
The Government and its institutions are not doing what they are required by law to do and so are equally responsible for all the GBV cases in this country.
Successive governments since independence have failed its people!
It is time, women and girls of this country petition their government to realign and completely overhaul its institutions, create effective GBV institutions, make GBV cases free of any form of fee from police or justice systems and give priority to the vulnerable to seek redress.
Parliament seriously needs to make an emergency meeting purposely to amend laws and enact new laws to protect and assist the womenfolk in seeking justice.

Peter Angra Kopa,
Baura Village – Tabibuga,
Jimi District

4 comments

  • Law will ever never do anything good to us these days, There is a Power call GRACE in the CHURCH today, we need to run into for protection, we are not made to live to complaint, we are made live under a covering known as Marimari bilong God….this is the ANSWER today…Otherwise we live with complaint & die with it….The Lord Bless us all……

  • Tradition difference, Religious believes also contribute to all this problem. We are so called Christian nation but not everyone practise Christianity in every society, therefore it make it harder to solve such issue.

  • I concur. Well written and articulated. Respect for each other as human is no longer an issue in our male- dominated societies today for our women-folk, whether at home, work place or in public. There is fear and insecurity when seeking help from places where one would think to find or be heard without fear and threat. Unfortunately, the opposite is a sad reality. Our societies are infested with such inhuman treatment that our womenfolk – young girls, and those of male-folk who fall prey to such insecurity and abuse relating to (GBV) Gender-Based Violence. We need to uphold respect for each other despite who is who and treat people with love and respect.

  • Who do we live for, as long as we live, for God or the the devil, there is no third party to our living on planet earth,
    John 10:10. the devil came to kill & destroy, so we need to come out that environment of satan’s kingdom & go into the Kingdom of God for his protection, when the time is right to make the decision, we can not delay, I believe the time is already up,..

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