In PNG’s barbarous prisons, where is the voice of Australia?

The last execution was in 1954.

Nowak found prison conditions are generally poor. “Most prisons do not have sufficient beds, mosquito nets or blankets. In addition, very few cells have running water, contributing to poor hygienic conditions. … the food provided to the detainees in the entire country is insufficient and of a very low nutritional value.”

Detention or punishment cells are overcrowded, holding up to three times their capacity. In some institutions prisoners were locked in overcrowded cells up to 18 hours a day.

Women

Nowak found that although violence against women seems to be widespread the communities underreport it for shame or fear of further violence or rejection. “Little support is granted by the State, and women who are victims of domestic violence do not seem to be recognized as victims. Many female detainees I interviewed were incarcerated for crimes linked to domestic violence and polygamy.”

He heard many allegations of sexual abuse by arresting officers in exchange for release from custody. “Some officers also appear to frequently arrest women for minor offences with the intention of sexually abusing them. As a punishment, some women were also threatened or were placed in cells with male detainees for a night, where they were subjected to collective rape by the other detainees.”

Persons with disabilities and diseases

“Medical care in detention facilities is insufficient or totally inexistent throughout the country,” finds Nowak. “The psychiatric support to detention facilities is not in compliance with international minimum standards. Psychiatric evaluations should be done on a routine basis, and in an independent and professional manner.”

Only one hospital treats those with mental disabilities, but it does not have enough permanent resident psychiatrists and facilities are old and fairly run down.

“It seems that Papua New Guinea lacks a proper forensic system capable of assuring timely and adequate examinations of victims of torture and ill-treatment, as well as prompt and complete forensic autopsies in accordance with international standards.

“I am very concerned about the practice of the police to deliberately disable persons suspected of serious crimes and those who escape from detention.”

Nowak recommended that the PNG Government:

• Declare unambiguously at the highest level, in particular those responsible for law enforcement, that they will not tolerate torture or similar ill treatment by public officials and that those in command at the time abuses are perpetrated will be held personally responsible for the abuses.
   
• Ensure prompt and thorough ex officio investigations for all allegations of ill treatment or excessive use of force by an authority that is independent from the investigation and prosecution. Any officer known to be abusive should be removed from custodial duties. Heads of police stations and detention facilities shall be made aware of their supervisory responsibility.
   
• Ensure a comprehensive and structural reform of the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary in accordance with the recommendations of the Administrative Review Committee to the then Minister for Internal Security in September 2004.
   
• Ratify the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and its Optional Protocol, providing for regular preventive visits to all places of detention by an independent domestic monitoring body.
   
• Amend the domestic legislation to include torture as a serious crime with adequate penalties. The definition of the crime of torture should be in full accordance with article 1 of the Convention against Torture.
   
• Reduce, as a matter of urgent priority, the period of police custody to a time limit in line with international standards (maximum 48 hours). After this period, detainees should be transferred to a separate remand facility under a different authority.
   
• Establish accessible and effective complaints mechanisms in all places of detention. Complaints by detainees should be followed up by independent and thorough investigations, and complainants must be protected from reprisals.
   
• Ensure those deprived of their liberty are confined in facilities where the conditions comply with international minimum sanitary and hygienic standards and that detainees are provided with basic necessities, such as adequate floor space, bedding, food, water and health care. Prisoners should be provided with opportunities for work, education, recreation and rehabilitation activities.
   
• Separate detainees on remand from convicted prisoners. Remove all children from adult detention facilities. Immediately close Mount Hagen Police Station.
   
• Urgently build a proper correctional institution in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville.
   
• Ratify the first Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which provides for the right of victims to lodge individual complaints to the UN Human Rights Committee.
   
• Abolish the death penalty and ratify the second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty.

He also recommended that the international donor community consider protection of human rights in the criminal justice system, and in particular the prevention of torture, as the highest priority. Specific programmes and projects should be carried out only after clear demonstration of the political will to implement far-reaching structural reforms aimed at the prevention of torture. Are you listening, Foreign Minister?