A staggering 3.414 million Papua New Guinea women may experience intimate partner violence this year, according to statistics provided by the country’s National Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Secretariat this month. They are women like 29-year-old Lina Numbalihi, who was allegedly tortured to death by her husband, who is a member of the PNG Defence Force. She was a mother of two, and at the time of writing, her husband was still at large.
The PNG Post Courier newspaper reported National Capital District Assistant Police Commissioner Ben Turi as describing the case as “one of the most brutal” he had ever encountered. Numbalihi’s death was followed by the abduction, rape and murder of another woman from a Port Moresby housing estate
by a group of men.
That crime prompted Prime Minister James Marape to say, “No woman, no child, and no citizen should endure such horrifying violence.” He continued, “This is not just an attack on one individual; it is an attack on our collective humanity.”
A chronic problem
Bel isi, a PNG civil society organisation that works to eliminate violence against women and runs a case
management centre and safe house in the capital city, said it was appalled by the deaths.
“The escalating prevalence of family and sexual violence, gender-based violence and sorcery accusation-related violence is at crisis point, and we cannot turn away,” Bel Isi said in a recent statement. “We urge the implementation of stronger legal protections, prosecution of perpetrators, more accessible support systems for survivors, and the creation of awareness programs that challenge harmful gender norms and attitudes.”
In March this year, PNG’s parliament heard a debate on gender-based violence. Again, Prime Minister Marape spoke on the issue. “I just want to say to all our mothers, to all our women, and all out daughters of Papua New Guinea – we are sorry, we are sorry! “To the relatives of the deceased, to the daughters who
have passed on, and to those who grieve today, I just want to say, we are sorry, and we seek your forgiveness.”
Jiwaka Provincial Member Simon Kaiwi also took the floor during the debate, and apologised for the actions of his grandson, Bhosip Kaiwi, who murdered Jenelyn Kennedy in 2020. Kaiwi is now raising Kennedy’s children. “I apologise to the mothers, aunties, sisters, and the women of Papua New Guinea for the actions of my young grandson, who is now behind bars for his crime.”
Meanwhile at the Commission for the Status of Women (CSW) meeting in New York this month, PNG’s Minister for Community Development, Youth and Religion, Jason Peter, acknowledged that three decades after the Beijing Declaration, the issues facing PNG’s women were the same.
“The challenges we pointed out three decades ago in Beijing—such as the unacceptable high level of gender-based violence, limited political participation, inadequate access to education and healthcare, and economic marginalisation—are ongoing, compounded further by new and emerging issues,” Peter said.
He told the CSW that a recently established Bipartisan Permanent Parliamentary Committee on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment will provide legislative oversight and accountability for addressing violence against women.
“We are proactively strengthening policy implementation under the National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-Based Violence (2016-2025) and to fully operationalize the National GBV Secretariat. This includes educating our men and boys to change their mindset and attitudes to become champions for women and girls’ issues,” he said.
The 2025 International Women’s Day theme is ‘Accelerate Action’.
In PNG’s parliament, Member for Madang, Bryan Kramer, was critical of the government’s approach to GBV to date, claiming there was a lack of accountability and leadership, and saying a concrete action plan was needed. “We are here to give speeches that mean nothing,” he opined.
He warned that without a clear strategy, the same discussions would recur annually. “We are going to come back next year to talk about the same thing because we don’t have a plan,” he asserted. He further criticised the lack of internal accountability, stating, “We don’t hold our colleagues and family members
accountable to start with.”
While GBV against Papua New Guinean women and girls is accelerating, it remains to be seen how effective the actions discussed in parliament and in UN meeting rooms will be in ending this generational tragedy.
