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Gender Violence & Human Rights: Seeking Justice in Fiji, Papua New Gender Violence & HUMAN RIGHTS SEEKING JUSTICE IN FIJI, PAPUA NEW GUINEA & VANUATU Gender Violence & HUMAN RIGHTS SEEKING JUSTICE IN FIJI, PAPUA NEW GUINEA & VANUATU Edited by Aletta Biersack, Margaret Jolly & Martha Macintyre Published by ANU Press The Australian National University Acton ACT 2601, Australia Email: [email protected] This title is also available online at press.anu.edu.au National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Title: Gender violence and human rights : seeking justice in Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu / editors : Aletta Biersack, Margaret Jolly, Martha Macintyre. ISBN: 9781760460709 (paperback) 9781760460716 (ebook) Subjects: Sex discrimination against women--Fiji. Sex discrimination against women--Papua New Guinea. Sex discrimination against women--Vanuatu. Women’s rights--Fiji. Women’s rights--Papua New Guinea. Women’s rights--Vanuatu. Other Creators/Contributors: Biersack, Aletta, editor. Jolly, Margaret 1949- editor. Macintyre, Martha, editor. Dewey Number: 305.420995 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Cover design and layout by ANU Press. The editors thank Mitiana Arbon for his help with the cover and Martha Macintyre for use of her photograph ‘Woman in Kavieng market, wearing a T-shirt promoting human rights, Papua New Guinea’, for the cover. This edition © 2016 ANU Press Contents List of Maps and Figures . vii Acknowledgements . ix Abbreviations and Acronyms . xi Introduction: Gender Violence and Human Rights in the Western Pacific . 1 Aletta Biersack and Martha Macintyre 1 . Villages, Violence and Atonement in Fiji . 47 Lynda Newland 2 . ‘Lost in Translation’: Gender Violence, Human Rights and Women’s Capabilities in Fiji . 81 Nicole George 3 . Men’s Matters: Changing Masculine Identities in Papua New Guinea . 127 Philip Gibbs 4 . Proclivity and Prevalence: Accounting for the Dynamics of Sexual Violence in the Response to HIV in Papua New Guinea . 159 Katherine Lepani 5 . Sorcery Talk, Gender Violence and the Law in Vanuatu . 197 John P . Taylor and Natalie G . Araújo 6 . Translating and Internalising International Human Rights Law: The Courts of Melanesia Confront Gendered Violence . 229 Jean G . Zorn 7 . Human Rights Work in Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Vanuatu . 271 Aletta Biersack 8 . ‘When She Cries Oceans’: Navigating Gender Violence in the Western Pacific . 341 Margaret Jolly Contributors . 381 List of Maps and Figures Map 1. Western Pacific showing Fiji, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea. 2 Figure 1. Human rights activists request that Paiyam (or Porgera) Hospital be transferred to the state to lower the cost of health care for women and children in Porgera, Enga Province, PNG. 36 Figure 2. Porgera women throughout the valley convene by village to participate in this demonstration. .36 Map 2. Fiji ...........................................48 Map 3. Papua New Guinea ..............................128 Figure 3. Men’s Matters meeting at Kiunga ..................131 Figure 4. Poster on domestic violence, displayed in Mt Hagen Hospital, PNG .........................137 Figure 5. Hierarchical and egalitarian models of relationship ....150 Figure 6. Jeffry Feeger,Physical Integrity, ink and pencil on A4 paper, 2014 ................................167 Map 4. Vanuatu ......................................199 vii Acknowledgements Gender Violence and Human Rights: Seeking Justice in Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu began as the panel ‘Gender Violence in Melanesia and Human Rights Discourse: Toward a Research Agenda’ at the 2011 annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) in Montreal, Canada. The panel was co-organised by Aletta Biersack, Martha Macintyre and Margaret Jolly. The editors thank the participants in that panel as well as the dedicated contributors to this volume, who have forborne a protracted process of publication. We also thank the two reviewers for their insightful comments and the Pacific Editorial Board at ANU Press for their approval and enthusiasm. Generous funding from the Australian Research Council, through Margaret Jolly’s ARC Laureate Fellowship Project, Engendering Persons, Transforming Things: Christianities, Commodities and Individualism in Oceania (FL100100196), has been crucial to the production of the volume. We thank Kaye Dancey and her team at CartoGIS for the excellent maps. The editors are especially grateful to Carolyn Brewer for her superb editorial support in the preparation of this volume for publication. Margaret Jolly wishes to thank The Australian National University for long-term support of her research and of the very successful Gender Institute, where colleagues have created an empowering and mutually supportive environment. Finally, Aletta Biersack thanks the Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon, and the Center for the Study of Women in Society, University of Oregon, for travel funds enabling her to present her paper on the 2011 AAA panel and to conduct research in Papua New Guinea in 2015. ix Abbreviations and Acronyms AAA American Anthropological Association ACPACS Australian Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies ACWIN Action Council of Women in Need ADB Asian Development Bank ANU The Australian National University ART antiretroviral therapy AusAID Australian Agency for International Development CAVAW Committee Against Violence Against Women CBC Catholic Bishops’ Conference CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women CEDAW Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Committee against Women CIMC Consultative Implementation and Monitoring Committee CLRC Constitutional and Law Reform Commission (PNG) CMC Case Management Centre CRC Convention on the Rights of the Child Criminal Criminal Code (Sexual Offences and Crimes Code Act Against Children) Act CSA child sexual abuse CSEC commercial sexual exploitation of children DFAT Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Australia) DJAG Department of Justice and Attorney General DVD Domestic Violence Decree DWA Department of Women’s Affairs (Vanuatu) xi GENDER VIOLENCE & HUMAN RIGHTS E VAW Elimination of Violence Against Women FLA Family Law Act FPA Family Protection Act FPO Family Protection Order FPU Family Protection Unit FSC Family Support Centre FSVAC Family and Sexual Violence Action Committee FSVU Family and Sexual Violence Unit FWCC Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre FWRM Fiji Women’s Rights Movement GNC Gouvernement Nouvelle Calédonie GoPNG Government of Papua New Guinea GBV gender-based violence HRW Human Rights Watch HWHRDM Highlands Women’s Human Rights Defenders Movement IBBS integrated bio-behavioural survey IPO Interim Protection Order LRC Law Reform Commission MDGs Millennium Development Goals Ministry Ministry for Women, Children and for Women Poverty Alleviation MSC Most Significant Change technique MSF Médecins Sans Frontières NCC National Council of Chiefs NCWF National Council of Women Fiji NGO non-governmental organisation NSRRT National Sex and Reproduction Research Team ODW Office for the Development of Women OHCHR Office of the High Commission for Human Rights PC&SS Pacific Counselling and Social Services PERs Public Emergency Regulations PIAF Pacific Islands AIDS Foundation PNG Papua New Guinea xii ABBREviations AND ACRONYMS PPDVP Pacific Prevention of Domestic Violence Programme RPNGC Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary RRRT Regional Rights and Resources Team RTP Regional Training Program SCC Sanma Counselling Centre SDG Sustainable Development Goals SNAP Sorcery National Action Plan SOU Sexual Offences Unit SSGM State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Program TCC Tafea Counselling Centre ToCC Torba Counselling Centre UN United Nations UNGA UN General Assembly UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNFPA United Nations Population Fund UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund UN Women United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women VAM Violence Against Men VAW Violence Against Women VCCT Voluntary Confidential Counselling and Testing VNCW Vanuatu National Council of Women VWC Vanuatu Women’s Centre WHO World Health Organization WPA Women’s Plan of Action YWCA Young Women’s Christian Association ZTVFC Zero Tolerance Violence Free Communities xiii Introduction: Gender Violence and Human Rights in the Western Pacific Aletta Biersack and Martha Macintyre University of Oregon and University of Melbourne In October 2014, Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager who nearly died from a Taliban gunshot wound sustained two years prior, but who lived to address the UN on 12 July 2013, her 16th birthday, was named co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.1 In her 2013 speech Malala defended every child’s right to an education, but her focus more specifically was on the right of girls to an education as well as on women’s rights, because, as she said, women ‘are the ones who suffer the most’.2 Even though Malala’s cause is girls’ education and the rights of females more generally, she is the most potent global symbol of another cause: the cause of ending violence against all females, young and old, in the name of human rights. Violence against females is not restricted to Pakistan, of course. It ‘has epidemic proportions, and is present in every single country around the world’,3 occurring in developed, rich countries no less than in poorer developing countries. 1 ‘Pakistani activist Malala
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