The United States Department of State has published a damning picture of human rights abuses in Papua New Guinea in its Annual Report.

"Human rights abuses during the year included arbitrary or unlawful killings by police, severe police abuse of detainees, poor prison conditions, police impunity, lengthy pretrial detention, infringement of citizens' privacy rights, government corruption, violence and discrimination against women, sexual abuse of children, trafficking in persons, discrimination against persons with disabilities, intertribal violence, violence against Asians, and ineffective enforcement of labor laws".