Papua New Guinea aims to submit its first report on the rectified International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) by this year.
The Department of Justice and Attorney General has taken the lead to prepare the report, which is expected to be submitted to the United Nations Human Rights by the end of 2017.
The Government has committed to setting up a strict coordination mechanism called the ‘National Mechanism for Reporting and Follow up’ to help prepare reports on the six rectified human rights conventions.
PNG rectified the ICCPR in 2008 and is the process of establishing that structure through the leadership of the justice department.
ICCPR commits its parties to respect the civil and political rights of individuals, including the right to life, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, electoral rights and rights to due process and a fair trial.
National Human Rights Officer Alithia Barampataz says there needs to be prioritisation and a lot of coordination to get information from all the key departments to complete the reports.
Barampataz confirmed that PNG’s last report was submitted in 2010, on the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).
ICCPR will be the second report on human rights to be submitted.
She said PNG has six conventions to report on where all these reports are overdue.