[child-rights] Papua New Guinea: Continuing police brutality against children

Torture, Rape Undermine HIV/AIDS Prevention

(New York, October 30, 2006) -- Police violence against children remains
rampant in Papua New Guinea, despite recent juvenile justice reform
efforts, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Children and
others in police custody are often raped and tortured.

"Police rapes and torture are crimes, not methods of crime control," said
Zama Coursen-Neff, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch's Children's
Rights Division. "These brutal tactics have destroyed public confidence in
the police."

Another problem, Human Rights Watch said, is that that police routinely
lock children up with adults, even when separate space is available,
placing them at risk of rape and other forms of violence. Police rarely
provide children with medical care, even when seriously injured.

The 50-page report, "Still Making Their Own Rules: Ongoing Impunity for
Police Beatings, Rape, and Torture in Papua New Guinea
(http://hrw.org/reports/2006/png1006/) is a follow-up to Human Rights
Watch’s 2005 report on police violence against children. The report
tracks developments in 2005 and 2006, and determines that abusive
officials rarely face punishment. For example:

* Police officers opened fire on unarmed school boys in October 2005. Two
officers were charged, but police have not sent the cases to the public
prosecutor.
* Police beat and gang-raped girls and women during a well-documented raid
on an alleged brothel in March 2004. To date, no police officers have been
punished.
* Corrections officers at Buimo prison beat and sexually abused boy
detainees by forcing them to have anal sex with each other in January
2006. The officers continue to work at the prison.

Although dismissals and prosecutions are not completely unheard of, they
are so rare compared with the scale of violations as to nullify any
deterrent effect. Papua New Guineans describe police violence as so common
that they consider it normal; however, that does not mean that it is
acceptable. People around the country have told Human Rights Watch that
they want a police force that protects, not endangers, them.

"By choosing not to punish abusive police, Papua New Guinea’s
leaders leave ordinary people as afraid of the police as they are of
criminals,” Coursen-Neff said. "This problem will not diminish
unless police perpetrators are prosecuted."

The violence may contribute to Papua New Guinea’s rapidly escalating
HIV epidemic. With an estimated 140,000 people living with HIV/AIDS, Papua
New Guinea has the highest infection rate in the South Pacific. Police
abuse -- particularly the targeting of sex workers and boys and men
perceived to be homosexual, as well as harassment of people carrying
condoms -- may worsen the epidemic by undermining HIV prevention efforts.

Human Rights Watch found small signs of progress in the juvenile justice
system in 2006. Police established a two-person unit to monitor police
treatment of children, and a few individual police officers stepped
forward to implement this system. In addition, several juvenile
magistrates promised to implement checks on abuses. Outside of the
government, some nongovernmental organizations are attempting to address
aspects of police violence. Although these are promising developments,
they have yet to produce demonstrable change in police treatment of
children.

"Progress in juvenile justice is encouraging but extremely fragile,"
Coursen-Neff said. "The government must do all it can to entrench these
developments and avoid falling back to business as usual."

Australia is Papua New Guinea’s largest foreign donor, but direct
aid to the police remains under negotiation, following the withdrawal of
Australian Federal Police in 2005. Substantial past aid to police failed
to reduce violence and other human rights violations by officers.

"Papua New Guinea and Australia should make sure that protection for the
human rights of children and marginalized groups is at the forefront of
future assistance to the police," said Coursen-Neff.

Human Rights Watch Press release