Human Rights Commission

Illegal land grabbing is a massive problem in PNG and has a big impact on rural subsistence farmers.

Once permission over the customary-owned land is granted to a company through a lease title, communities are displaced and to some point, disrespected.

Furthermore, with an absence of a Human Rights Commission, landowners lack support to present their cases.

As a consequence, the forest dependent subsistence farmers, mothers and children are greatly affected as their movement is restricted. They lose access to gardening grounds, fishing, hunting and sacred sites.

Deputy secretary of the Department of Justice and Attorney General, Roselyn Gwaibo, says this has been talked about since 1991 and the current government is committed to making sure it is established in this term of government.

She made this comment when speaking at the inaugural judges workshop on human rights that is being run by the Pacific Judicial Strengthening Initiative.

Gwaibo explained the purpose of the commission, saying once it is established, it will mediate and consolidate human rights violations. 

This issue has been on the Government's agenda since more than a decade, says Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), human rights adviser Kedar Poudyal.

OHCHR has been working with Government departments, including the Department of Justice and the Department of Community Development, which play a leading role in this regard.

Poudyal told Loop PNG that recently, in 2016 during the Universal Periodic Review of PNG by the Human Rights Council, PNG reiterated its commitment to establish the commission.