Dealing with incest in PNG

FAMILY violence has increased tremendously over the past years.
The media reports family violence, rape, incest and other sexual crimes daily.
What is most disturbing has been the rise of sexual violence against women and girls together with physical violence.
Although intruders into family homes carry out some assaults, family members have been responsible for most of these assaults.
In a lot of these cases, the victims know the offenders – and are in some way related to them.
October 19 this year marks 21 years since Papua New Guinea joined other countries by signing the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child (CRC).
This membership requires PNG to take all administrative, social and educational measures available in protecting children from all forms of violence and abuses.
One form of sexual abuse that is fast becoming an increasing concern has been incest.
It is the most common form of sexual abuse but is left unrealised in many communities.
Incest is defined as any use of a minor child to meet the sexual/emotional needs of one or more persons whose authority is derived through ongoing emotional bonding with that child.
The person can be an adult, or another child who is older.
This person can be a blood relative (parent, sibling, aunt, uncle, cousin and grandparent, etc,) a teacher, priest, step-parent or sexual partner of a parent.
People who engage in sexual acts with children, or close blood relatives, are guilty of the crime of incest.
If incest were occurring within a family, the people concerned would try their best to keep it surreptitious.
If it happened that a girl falls pregnant due to an incestuous relationship, she would be forced to marry someone out of her blood relatives.
According to a former police officer in charge of the sexual offences squad in Kokopo Rolland Funmat, East New Britain has had 75% of sexual offence cases against women committed by close relatives such as fathers, uncles and cousins.
Some years back, a 42-year-old man was sentenced to 15 years in prison for having sex with his daughter.
The case was described as the worst offence ever committed within the family ring.
The court also agreed that the degree of his punishment had been given due to his relationship with the victim.
Funmat said during his term as the officer in charge of SOS, he had uncovered more than 300 cases.
However, he believed that there were still many cases in the province, region and country that had not been reported or diverted to the village level.
He added that the matter should not be ignored and that should be awareness should be  conducted in schools and other institutions in the province to help the children.
In incest cases, a lot of children are unable to protect themselves because the offender is usually someone they know.
They can receive extensive psychological damage because of the act committed to them.
According to Tom Illaisa, a lawyer with Narokobi Lawyers, the maximum penalty in the past for offenders had been a seven-year jail term.But, this has been increased to 15 years.
He said that it had been disappointing to note that in the past, the courts had imposed lower sentences on those who had committed such crimes.
This, he said, had seriously undermined the seriousness of incest and sexual abuse offences committed against children.