By Staycey Yalo – EMTV News, Port Moresby
Papua New Guinea continues to rank as one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a woman or a girl.
70% of women experience rape or assault in their lifetime and violence against women and girls is normalised and enabled across all levels of the society.
This is according to OXFAM, an international development confederation of 18 organisations (and two observer members) working with partners and local communities in more than 90 countries to mobilise the power of people against poverty.
OXFAM and PNG partners released a four-year report on understanding Gender Based Violence and Sorcery Related Violence in PNG.
Minister for Planning and Monitoring, Richard Maru said GBV and sorcery related violence is reaching unseen level in the history of PNG where laws passed by government seem to not work.
Representative of an Oxfam partner, Papua Hahine Social Action Forum, Catherine Sariman said their work also involves dealing with the main perpetrators of violence who are men, through their male advocacy program.
Upon releasing the report, Oxfam & partners, the “Inap Nau” campaign was launched together to make a firm stand against what they termed, as a destructive behaviour.
This campaign aims at targeting citizens between the ages of 13-25 as they are the main instigators of violence against women and girls. The goal is to provide the above group of people to find conflict resolution as normal and not resort to violence.
