Source: United Nations

Papua New Guinea’s human rights record will be examined by the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group for the second time on Friday, 6 May 2016 in a meeting that will be webcast live.

Papua New Guinea is one of the 14 States to be reviewed by the UPR Working Group during its upcoming session taking place from 2 to 13 May.  Papua New Guinea’s first UPR took place on 11 May 2011.

The documents on which the reviews are based are: 1) national report - information provided by the State under review 2) information contained in the reports of independent human rights experts and groups, known as the Special Procedures, human rights treaty bodies, and other UN entities; 3) information provided by other stakeholders including national human rights institutions, regional organizations and civil society groups.

Among the issues raised in the above-mentioned documents are: violence against women, including rape and so-called "wife-bashing", and prosecuting such acts; sorcery-related violence; violence against children and associated health risks; combatting child labour and working conditions in industrial plantation operations; gender equality and discrimination based on sex; women's participation in political life; the use of the death penalty; excessive use of force by police, corruption, ill-treatment and harassment; detention of asylum seekers; efforts to combat poverty; school enrolment rates and conditions of school facilities; remedies to indigenous landowners, and the Special Purpose Agriculture and Business Leases scheme.

The three reports serving as the basis for the review of Papua New Guinea on 6 May can be found here: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/PGSession25.aspx

Location: Room 20, Palais des Nations, Geneva
Time and date: 09.00 – 12.30, Monday (Geneva time, GMT +1 hour)

The UPR is a unique process which involves a periodic review of the human rights records of all 193 UN Member States.  Since its first meeting was held in April 2008, all 193 UN member States have been reviewed during the first UPR cycle and 168 thus far during the second cycle.  The second review of States aims to highlight human rights developments in the country since its first review and provides an opportunity for States under review to spell out steps taken to implement recommendations posed during their first reviews. 

The delegation of Papua New Guinea will be headed by Mr Fred Sarufa, Charge d'Affaires, Permanent Mission of Papua New Guinea to the United Nations

The three country representatives serving as rapporteurs (“troika”) for the review of Papua New Guinea:  Belgium, Namibia and Viet Nam

The webcast of the session will be at http://webtv.un.org

The list of speakers and all available statements to be delivered during the review of Papua New Guinea will be posted on the UPR Extranet at the following link [username:  hrc extranet (with space); password: 1session]:  https://extranet.ohchr.org/sites/upr/Sessions/25session/PapuaNewGuinea/Pages/default.aspx

The UPR Working Group is scheduled to adopt the recommendations made to Papua New Guinea 13.00 on 11 May.  The State under review may wish to express its positions on recommendations posed to it during their review.  The recommendations will be shared with the media on this day in advance.