Enough talk, let’s end GBV

THE prevalence of violence in Papua New Guinea is quite sickening, if not frightening.
This week’s parliamentary inquiry into gender-based violence (GBV) uncovered nothing really new – officials speaking at the inquiry merely confirmed what has been common knowledge.
There is way too much violence and efforts to address the menace have been wanting.
Numerous cases are not reported and those that get registered at police stations or courts do not progress successful prosecutions and convictions.
Meanwhile, perpetrators are left to roam freely and able to inflict further injury or kill at the next opportunity while the victims are totally helpless.
Some give up hope in the criminal justice system.
The lower courts which deal initially with cases of violence are overworked and understaffed.
This fact was iterated at the inquiry and it was also proposed that a separate family court be established to specifically deal with GBV cases to ensure speedy justice is dealt to the victim and the offender.
The alarming prevalence of violence against women and sorcery-related violence is a well-known fact but it is no use talking only about the numerous cases of violence.
There is an urgent need to look beyond those cases and identify the root causes of such violence in society.
Experts in sociology or human behaviour could be called on to get some understanding of the situation and provide policy makers the knowledge to act on.
What could be the motivation for such violence acts in families or by people known by their victims over recent years? There are many questions begging answers and without knowing the underlying reasons, we may go on documenting, reporting and lamenting the instances of violence, torture and death without any attempt at working on preventative measures.
Has the modern PNG come under immense pressure from competing demands of life; to prove his manhood and supposed superiority in education, professional career or as primary provider in the family?
Does the PNG man feel threatened or undermined by his colleague, girlfriend, wife or partner?
Church ministers and believers may blame violence on unseen spiritual forces at work.
In sorcery-related violence, instead of the helpless victim, it is his or her torturers who are more likely driven by such evil forces to commit acts of violence.
This kind of violence is often perpetrated by people with limited education who blame every suspicious death on circumstances other than natural causes.
Understanding the causes can help in preventing violence.
In the legal front, adultery should be met with much harsher penalties than the slap-on-the-wrist K1,000 fine.
Polygamy should be outlawed, period.
It is one of the main root causes of domestic violence and death.
The old argument that the practice is part of traditional custom is just that – an old argument.
Wealthy chieftains in villages capable of managing multiple wives should remain there.
In places where money is the answer to everything from the evening meal to a child’s education, polygamy only worsens family struggles and raises the possibility of disputes and violence.
Men considering multiple wives – and women who want to go along – ought to wake up to the fact that most PNG men today cannot handle more than one without resorting to some “special” means to be able to do that.
In murder cases involving rival wives, the operative criminal law appears way too lenient on the man in the middle of a love triad.
If mob justice has its way, he gets a heftier penalty than the murderer.