COMMITTEE ON RIGHTS OF CHILD CONSIDERS INITIAL REPORT OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA

22 January 2004


The Committee on the Rights of the Child today considered the initial report of Papua New Guinea on that country’s efforts to implement the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Introducing the report, Mark Maipakai, Minister of Justice of Papua New Guinea, said that the education reform exercise continued to ensure that increasing numbers of children had access to the education system, and greater emphasis had been placed on accelerating girls’ education. He added that in 2003, the Government had established the first juvenile court and juvenile justice reform programme; adopted amendments to the criminal code and evidence relating to sexual offences against children and women; and passed the HIV/AIDS Management Bill, among other things.

In preliminary concluding remarks, Committee Expert Rosa Maria Ortiz, who served as country rapporteur to the report, noted the efforts of the State party in implementing the provisions of the Convention, adding that it had made a good start in 2003 when it had amended and adopted legislation concerning children. She stressed the need for a national plan of action to ensure the widest possible participation by non-governmental organizations, civil society and children themselves.

Other Committee Experts contributed to the debate by raising questions pertaining to the lack of resources for education and health; neglect in birth registration; the impact of the armed conflict in Bougainville on the rights of children; the spread of HIV/AIDS; and the traditional adoption of children, among other things.

The Committee will release its formal, written concluding observations and recommendations towards the end of its three-week session which will conclude on 31 January.

The delegation of Papua New Guinea was also made up of Lady Kidu, Minister for Community Development; and Joseph Klapat, Secretary, Department of Community Development.

As one of the 192 States parties to the Convention, Papua New Guinea is obliged to present periodic reports to the Committee on its efforts to comply with the provisions of the treaty. The delegation was on hand throughout the day to present the report and answer questions raised by Committee Experts.

When the Committee reconvenes at 10 a.m. on Friday, 23 January, it is scheduled to have a discussion with representatives of States parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Report of Papua New Guinea

The initial report of Papua New Guinea (CRC/C/28/Add.20) provides information on the efforts of the State party to comply with the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child since the country acceded to the treaty in March 1993. It notes that the Government has not yet invoked the process whereby the provisions of the Convention can be domestically implemented through enabling legislation. Currently, there is no clear role taken by the Government regarding implementation of the treaty. There is no policy decision or directive that a government agency should take the lead role. Neither is there any policy relating to the process or timing of implementation of the Convention.

The report notes that no new national body, commission or institution has been created to coordinate implementation of the Convention or to take responsibility for monitoring and reporting. In the absence of official action, there has been confusion about who has the responsibility to coordinate, monitor and report on implementation of the treaty. At present, all responsibility to monitor and report on the Convention rests with a loose Working Committee on the Rights of the Child, which has had no political mandate, status or resources to fulfil an official coordinating or reporting role. This report has been prepared in a context of low levels of public and political awareness of the Convention, the absence of a national plan of action and the lack of the appointment and endorsement of an official body.

On the definition of the child, the report says that many of the country’s diverse traditional values and norms are not compatible with the definition under the Convention. In many traditional settings, customs differentiate children from adults depending on certain culture-specific criteria. In traditional society, childhood ends according to community consensus that these criteria have been met. The criteria are very often associated with puberty and reproductive capacity for girls and with the attainment of certain physical capacities of self-reliance for young men. The definition of adulthood is closely tied to the determination of whether a male or female is deemed to be of marriageable age. One of the common determining criteria to males is the ability to independently and successfully build a house and hunt.

According to the report, in 1998, it was estimated that less than 1 per cent of all births in the country were officially registered, the majority of which were non-nationals. The centralized civil registry suffered from a serious lack of basic operational resources. There are times when it cannot make birth certificates available even to the nearby major national hospital in the capital. Out of 800 children born in the capital’s hospital each month, only one birth per month is ever officially registered.

Introduction of Report

MARK MAIPAKAI, Minister of Justice of Papua New Guinea, said that over the period from the early 1970s to the early 1980s, his country had experienced significant progress across a range of development indicators. In the years since, progress had slowed considerably and social indicators today were among the lowest in the region. The country was currently ranked a lowly 132 out of 175 countries on the United Nations Human Development Index. The country’s development challenges were compounded by a relatively high population growth and an alarming increase in the incidence of HIV infection.

In part, he continued, Papua New Guinea’s disappointing development record reflected its very rugged topography – a dispersed population of 5 million with more than 800 languages and dialects and the fact that at the time of independence, the formal development process was commencing from a very low base. However, the country also had advantages including abundant natural wealth and a resourceful and resilient people.

Mr. Maipakai said that in line with the principles of the Constitution, other legislation had also been established that provided for human rights including the rights of children. Twenty pieces of substantive national level legislation affecting children had been identified to require amendments. Many of the country’s laws on human rights were inherited from the colonial administration and some were not appropriate in the country’s context, out of date and contrary to the Convention and other international treaties.

The Government had examined the existing structures supporting the interests of children and the mechanisms to ensure that what traditional institutions provided were not abused or exploited, the Minister said. The Government had made significant progress in making the policy environment more conducive to the protection and fulfilment of children’s rights.

Mr. Maipakai said that the education reform exercise continued to see an increased number of children having access to the education system. Greater emphasis had been placed on accelerating girls’ education. In 2003, the Government had established the first juvenile court and juvenile justice reform programme; adopted amendments to the criminal code and evidence relating to sexual offences against children and women; and passed the HIV/AIDS Management Bill, among other things.

He acknowledged and commended the continued technical and financial support provided by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other international agencies towards the promotion and protection of the rights of the country’s children.

Discussion

ROSA MARIA ORTIZ, the Committee Expert who served as country rapporteur to the report of Papua New Guinea, said that the country would celebrate this year its 29th year of existence. It had 5.5 million inhabitants, 43 per cent of whom were below 15 years. The country used to have legislation making education free and compulsory, which had prompted the rate of enrolment to rise. However, the rate of enrolment had dropped by 50 per cent following the derogation of the law.

Ms. Ortiz said that the rate of maternal mortality in Papua New Guinea was one of the highest with 930 deaths out of 100,000. The life expectancy for mothers was 51, and it had not increased in the last decade. In 2001, the rate of infant mortality had increased from 72 to 82 per 1,000 life births.

MOUSHIRA KHATTAB, the Committee Expert who also served as country rapporteur to the report of Papua New Guinea, said the report lacked statistical data on children and information on the coordination of activities promoting children’s rights. She wanted to know about the role of the Working Group on the Rights of the Child. She appreciated the role played by non-governmental organizations in the promotion and protection of the rights of children. The Government should take further measures to uphold the status of women in the country, which was considered too low at present.

Other Experts also raised questions. One Expert asked about the dissemination of the Convention and the efforts carried out to make the treaty known outside schools. What progress was made to facilitate the teaching of human rights, in particular the provisions of the Convention, in schools? Were law-enforcement authorities trained on the Convention?

Another Expert said that children should be heard and should be able to participate in matters concerning them. Had there been progress in hearing the views of children? Did children participate in youth organizations?

An Expert said that the Government should not slow down the process of ratification of the two Optional Protocols to the Convention. The Government should also ratify other UN human rights treaties, to which it had not yet acceded. Was there political will to achieve the rights enshrined in the Convention through domestic laws and budgetary allocations? Was part of the budget earmarked to support action aimed at enhancing activities dealing with child rights? Did a child born of naturalized parents automatically obtain nationality?

Had the Government taken measures to register births, asked another Expert. What was happening to the definition of the child, which was not yet unified? The definition of the child was different for different usage.

An Expert asked if there was a time framework to revise the existing pieces of legislation in order to harmonize them with the provisions of the Convention.

Referring to the 2001 peace agreement following the conflict on Bouganville, another Expert asked about the impact of the conflict on the rights of children. She also asked what activities were accomplished with international cooperation and assistance.

Responding, the delegation said that the cut in budgetary allocations for education and other areas concerning child rights had been attributed mainly to the reduction in assistance from donors. The recurring political instability and ministerial reshuffles had also affected the political will of the State to promote the rights of the child.

The Government had been making efforts to replace obsolete legislation which did not comply with the provisions of the Convention, the delegation said.

The delegation said that there had been a lack of awareness of the rights of the child due to the changing culture of the nation. There was great concern because of the increasing incidents of diseases, such as the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The sudden increase in street children had also been attributed to the lack of awareness. Parents had started to be aware of the rights of their children.

Training had been provided to law-enforcement agents on preventive aspects of trafficking in children and women, the delegation said. A new law had also been put in place concerning trafficking in persons.

The Committee Experts continued putting questions. An Expert said that there were regional disparities due to the dispersion of the population among different islands. It was also difficult to train teachers in the 800 languages spoken by the population. The school curriculum needed revision with emphasis on the importance of education. The culture of education had to be widely made known to the population.

Another Expert noted that with regard to adoption, the State had made progress in creating an alternative to the institutional placement of children by placing them with foster families.
An Expert asked about the measures taken by the Government to protect children from harmful information. She said that foreign pornographic products had found their way into the country and had penetrated the society. Where did the Government stand on the expansion of libraries? Urgent measures should be taken concerning the issues of corporal punishment and long periods of child separation. The practice of polygamy had a negative impact on the upbringing of children, an issue which needed awareness increasing efforts on the part of the Government.

Although the Government was trying to include children with disabilities into the mainstream of the society, they were still excluded, another Expert said. The infant mortality rate remained high as indicated in the report, and the mortality rate for mothers was also high. Home births were common, with inexperienced persons helping with the delivery. Many parts of the country were infected with malaria; what measures were taken to reduce malaria incidents? What happened to orphans whose parents died of HIV/AIDS?

The delegation was asked to provide information on the practice of infanticide, which existed despite its prohibition.

Responding, the delegation said education was neither free nor compulsory. Although it was subsidized by the State, parents had to share the burden through the payment of fees. The capacity to educate students at the higher stages had been a difficult exercise due to the decreasing number of students as they went up the educational ladder. The multiplicity of languages was another factor hampering children from pursuing their studies.

Almost all the country’s land resources were owned by the population, while only 3 per cent was controlled by the Government and some enterprises, the delegation said. Although it was advantageous that the people owned the land, it was disadvantageous to the State from the point of view of development, the delegation said. The State had no free hand to design development programmes that required land or land-related resources.

Courts rarely intervened in the process of adoptions which were carried out according to traditional practices, the delegation said.

There was a censorship board whose function was to monitor the distribution of harmful publications, the delegation said; however, poor funding did not allow it to assume its functions properly.

The Government was intending to develop community libraries by putting them under the responsibility of the community itself, the delegation said. Borrowing books was discouraged because people did not return the books. The habit of reading could be developed for children by allowing them to read in the libraries without taking the books out.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic was a major issue for the authorities, the delegation said. The number of HIV/AIDS orphans had increased and hospitals could not cope with the growing phenomenon. The distribution of retrovirals had become an expensive burden for the State, and victims could not afford to pay for the drug. The Government lacked adequate testing and diagnosis facilities.

With regard to the situation in Bougainville, the delegation said that a text was being drafted with the view to definitively settle the situation in the region by giving it autonomous status. The region, after installing its own government, could run its own affairs.

Concerning police brutality against children, the delegation said that once the juvenile courts were put in place in June this year, such cases could be addressed. The Government was aware that children should not be treated as such. It was lack of discipline among the police that had led to the brutalisation of some children.

There was no compulsory birth registration in Papua New Guinea, the delegation said. However, the Government had given it some thought and was taking measures to make the issue of registration widely known to the population.

The Committee Experts continued to raise questions on the effect of the armed conflict in Bougainville on children; the reunion of children involved in the conflict with their families; the use of marijuana and the growing use of cannabis; the slave-like child labour in homes; the protection of refugee children; and the lack of separate detention centres for female law offenders, among other things.

Reacting, the delegation noted that saying the country was practicing slave-like child labour was offensive. Although the Government admitted the existence of domestic servants, the picture depicted by one of the Experts as slave-like was wrong. It was customary that girls should help families in the house, without going to the extent of exploitation.

The delegation said once peace was established after the 10-year armed conflict with Bougainville, the first stage had been to bring back normalcy. During the conflict, children had not been able to attend schools. A programme of de-traumatization counselling should have been carried out. However, the lack of funding had not allowed its full implementation. Churches and non-governmental organizations had been of great help through their contribution in the rehabilitation efforts of ex-combatants.

Drug abuse was of concern to the Government, the delegation said, adding that even small children were involved in smoking soft drugs. The use of marijuana was now common among the youth. The drug was grown in the country for local use and for export through illegal channels.

Preliminary Concluding Remarks

ROSA MARIA ORTIZ, the Committee Expert who served as country rapporteur to the report of Papua New Guinea, thanked the delegation for the frank dialogue and for the information provided by the members. She noted the efforts of the State party in implementing the provisions of the Convention, adding that it had made a good start in 2003 when it had amended and adopted legislation affecting children. She stressed the need for a national plan of action to ensure the widest possible participation by non-governmental organizations, civil society and children themselves. She hoped that the desire for peace and stability in the region would prevail.

MOUSHIRA KHATTAB, the Committee Expert who also served as country rapporteur to the report of Papua New Guinea, thanked the delegation and said that the Committee had been suffering from self-praising reports, compared to the report of Papua News Guinea which was self-criticising and frank.

Concluding Remarks by Delegation

LADY KIDU (Minister for Community Development of Papua New Guinea) said that her delegation had had a very good day with the Committee and the dialogue had been fruitful. Her country’s children were blessed compared to other children in the rest of the world. The Government would endeavour to create a world fit for children.