The Civil Society Organization had its 3rd Forum at the Hilton Hotel in Port Moresby organized by the Consultative Implementation Monitoring Council (CIMC) in partnership with UN Women, through the Spotlight initiative to commemorate the International Women Human Right Defenders Day.
The forum aims to take further the 2021 Civil Society Organization’s dialogue for a call to action to amplify the protection of human rights defenders, women and girls, and ensuring justice and quality services to survivors from any forms of Gender Based violence.
The forum was held to advocate for the protection of individuals through strengthening institutions, legislative reforms, and stronger push to establish the Human Rights Commission and pass the Human Rights defenders Protection Bill into law by November 2023.
The Acting First Assistant Secretary Community Learning, Community Environment & Informal Economy David Nugi thanked CIMC, UN Women and other organizations on behalf of the Department of Community Development, Youth and Religion for addressing the immediate issues like the vulnerable, marginalized and those who are suffering a lot.
“We have completed three important documents; the National Informal Economy Policy 2022 -2023, Community Development Bill and Social Impact Assessment,” he said.
He also stressed that there is a challenge to focus on youth and to educate them on human rights and gender based violence.
Ambassador Jacques Fradin, Head of Delegation from the European Union said they are ready to support the Civil Society Organization to fight against Gender Based Violence in PNG.
He said they will announce the next proposal for the Civil Society Organization and pledged K30 million for the association for February next year.
The UN Women Country Representative Themba Kalua stressed that Gender Based Violence in PNG is twice than other countries therefore, we have to put more effort in ending Gender Based Violence.
He requested the government of PNG to increase funding to Human Rights organizations to assist in ending all forms of violence in the country.
“The Government needs to increase funding by 50% to human rights organization by 2026,” Kalua added.
