More awareness needed on GBV

ACCORDING to research carried out by the National Aids Council, Gender Based Violence (GBV) statistics for women in Papua New Guinea is increasing.
How are we as educated people of this country going to address this issue? Our mothers, sisters and daughters deserve the respect and love of which they are naturally entitled, as we all should agree.
This epidemic is growing and growing fast.
When it comes to gender, we fathers, brothers and sons also need to understand our human rights obligations and responsibilities to respect women, whether she is our wife, sister or a fellow work/school mate.
Human Rights applies to every individual, educated or uneducated, disabled or able-bodied despite our socioeconomic and personal backgrounds.
Awareness and education on basic human rights is crucial.
If men fully understand the rights of women, we would support them and effectively decrease gender-based violence at work, schools and at home.
We witness our mothers, sisters and girls being tortured and burned alive due to sorcery-related accusations.
We hear of them being buried alive in pits, beaten to death over monetary related issues.
Some are forced by their family members to sell themselves for sex, as impossible as it is to believe.
Some women are socially abused, their rights to go out and express themselves in an open environment are usually deprived.
Apart from customary agreements understood by women, in many cases they face emotional abuse as they are forced to marry without their consent and bear children.
They have no voice. Their rights are not acknowledged and respected.
These are matters worth discussing as it affects everyone.
The so-called educated civilised men of this country are partly at fault for not spreading awareness on GBV throughout communities.
I pay my respects and offer my heartfelt condolences to the families of the women who have been killed mercilessly by Gender Based Violence causes.
Real men don’t beat women.

Kenneth Wauga Hombuanje,
Political and Social Activist