Media Release from the
UN Human Rights Office for the Pacific, Suva, Fiji: – To mark International
Women’s Day, 8 March, the United Nations (UN) in the Pacific will celebrate the
economic, political and social achievements of rural women. The UN Human Rights
Office for the Pacific (OHCHR) is highlighting the work of women’s human rights
defenders in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. The UN Human Rights Office for
the Pacific supports women’s human rights defender networks in Papua New Guinea,
Bougainville, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Kiribati. Below are two incredible
stories of courageous women human rights defenders who work with OHCHR to build
and strengthen human rights defender networks in their communities.
Monica Paulus – Fighting against sorcery related
killings
Monica Paulus,
a human rights defender, has been fighting against sorcery-related attacks for
years. She assists women who have been attacked after accusations of witchcraft
by providing them with food, hiding them in a safe place, assisting them in
presenting their cases to court, or taking them to the closest
hospital. She herself was accused of being a sorcerer and, as a
consequence, lost all her possessions, including her house. “I feel for those
women who have been accused of having magical powers,” she says. “I understand
their suffering because I also went through it and that is why I want to help
them.”
Sorcery is
believed to account for sudden or unexplained death or illness: the end result
is often that someone is killed for another person's unexplained death. Every
year hundreds of people are put to death or tortured because someone thinks
they are responsible, for a death or a disease, using black magic. Women are
six times more likely to be accused of sorcery than men, according to Amnesty
International.
Paulus recently
helped a woman accused of sorcery and managed to hide her, together with her
daughters, in a safe location. Because of the assistance she provided, Paulus
has been threatened by some members of the community. “They say I am the one
who helped the sorcerer. I am stigmatised because I help innocent women and
their children.”
On one
occasion, she sought assistance from the UN Human Rights Office in Papua New
Guinea regarding a woman and her four daughters who had been tortured and raped
after they were accused of sorcery. “The UN Human Rights Office helped them
relocate to a safe location,” she says.
Paulus works
full time with the Highlands Women’s Human Rights Defenders Network. The
Network focuses on issues related to sorcery accusations and killings, tribal
conflicts, and violence against women at home and in the community. A
number of female members of the Network, including Paulus, are subjected to serious
threats against their safety regularly because of their work. Aware of the
risks she faces, she continues her work with courage and commitment. “Helping
women accused of sorcery is the right thing to do,” she stresses. “They are
suffering with hardly any support and people don’t want to go near them.”
“I am inspired
by the courage of women,” she says. “Women accused of sorcery are victims of
extreme abuse and horrendous killings.” The stigma is passed on to their
children. “I have seen their children being displaced, abandoned and
stigmatized,” she concludes. “I am aware of that plight and that is why I want
to help.”
Mary Kini – Making “secret plans” to stop tribal
fighting and end violence against women
Mary Kini, a
human rights defender and a peace builder from Papua New Guinea, made “secret
plans” to bring peace to her community. After years of intertribal violence
that engulfed the district of Kup, in the mountains of Papua New Guinea, she
teamed up with two other women to end fighting.
Mary, Angela
Apa and Agnes Sil belong to three enemy tribes. In 1999, after one of the worst
tribal clashes, they decided to take action. “We were all affected by the
fighting. We lost our loved ones,” says Mary. “Our people had been
fighting for so long: enough was enough, so we made secret plans to bring peace
to our communities.”
According to
tribal laws, women of enemy tribes were not allowed to talk to one another.
Risking their lives, the three women came up with clandestine and innovative
ways to meet and strategize, such as discussing their peace plans while
shopping at the local market.
Mary, Angela
and Agnes succeeded in mobilising others to support peace in the district. They
even walked out onto the battlefields to send out messages of peace. This led
to the creation, in 2002, of the Kup Women for Peace (KWP), which works on
promoting peace between communities and ending violence against women.
Mary’s decision
to work towards building peace and promoting women’s rights came after
experiencing first-hand the consequences of inter-tribal violence. Because of
the fighting, Mary was not able to regularly attend school. “I did not complete
my studies because of tribal fighting, but I want young women who come after me
to have a good life,” she says.
The KWP works
in partnership with the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR), Oxfam PNG and other
women’s organisations from the region and is part of the Papua New Guinea
Highlands Women's Human Rights Defenders Network which was initiated by OHCHR.
Its activities and projects are assisted by OHCHR and Oxfam PNG, and by a coalition
of 15 organizations working together to find lasting solutions to poverty and
injustice.
In 2007 Mary
Kini and the KWP received the 7th Pacific Human Rights Award from the Pacific
Regional Rights Resource Team of the UN Development Programme. The award
honours extraordinary efforts in advancing human rights and peace building
throughout the Pacific and was given to the KWP for its outstanding work in
situations of conflict, for its intrepid dedication to the cause of peace in
the highlands of Papua New Guinea and for its bravery in challenging
discriminatory customs and norms, including widespread violence against women.
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