The implementation of Papua New Guinea's national goals and directive principles and basic social obligations

The thesis identifies an issue in Papua New Guinea’s Constitution with regard to the non-implementation of its National Goals and Directive Principles (NGDP) and Basic Social Obligations (BSO). Situated in the Preamble to the Constitution, the NGDP and BSO provide a guide for the future development of Papua New Guinea. Upon a careful study of ss 25 and 63 of the Constitution, which enjoins governmental bodies in Papua New Guinea to implement the NGDP and BSO, the thesis argues they are indirectly justiciable. Characterising the NGDP and BSO as indirectly justiciable would facilitate their implementation within the present constitutional framework by considering the functions of each of the limbs of government and the Ombudsman Commission as interconnected. Using indirect justiciability and the interconnectedness approach, the thesis outlines several proposals for the legislature, the executive, the judiciary and the Ombudsman Commission. The thesis contends these proposals can facilitate the effective and efficient implementation of the NGDP and BSO

Reflecting on loss in Papua New Guinea

This article takes up the conundrum of conducting anthropological fieldwork with people who claim that they have 'lost their culture,' as is the case with Suau people in the Massim region of Papua New Guinea. But rather than claiming culture loss as a process of dispossession, Suau claim it as a consequence of their own attempts to engage with colonial interests. Suau appear to have responded to missionization and their close proximity to the colonial-era capital by jettisoning many of the practices characteristic of Massim societies, now identified as 'kastom.' The rejection of kastom in order to facilitate their relations with Europeans during colonialism, followed by the mourning for kastom after independence, both invite consideration of a kind of reflexivity that requires action based on the presumed perspective of another

A socio-ecological analysis of factors influencing HIV treatment initiation and adherence among key populations in Papua New Guinea

Background: In Papua New Guinea (PNG) members of key populations, including female sex workers (FSW), men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender women (TGW), have higher rates of HIV compared to the general adult population and low engagement in HIV care. This paper examines the socio-ecological factors that encourage or hinder HIV treatment initiation and adherence among HIV positive members of key populations in PNG. Methods: As part of a larger biobehavioural survey of key populations in PNG, 111 semi-structured interviews were conducted with FSW, MSM and TGW, of whom 28 identified as living with HIV. Interviews from 28 HIV positive participants are used in this analysis of the influences that enabled or inhibited HIV treatment initiation and treatment adherence. Results: Enablers included awareness of the biomedical benefits of treatment; experiences of the social, familial and health benefits of early treatment initiation and adherence; support provided by family and friends; and nonjudgmental and supportive HIV service provision. Factors that inhibited treatment initiation and adherence included perception of good health and denial of HIV diagnosis; poor family support following positive diagnosis; and anonymity and stigma concerns in HIV care services. Conclusion: Exploring health promotion messages that highlight the positive health impacts of early treatment initiation and adherence; providing client-friendly services and community-based treatment initiation and supply; and rolling out HIV viral load testing across the country could improve health outcomes for these key populations

On the Repugnance of Customary Law

The Constitution of Papua New Guinea (PNG) features a peculiar artifact of colonial-era law known as a repugnancy clause. This type of clause, used elsewhere as a neutral mechanism to identify conflicts between legal provisions, has in PNG become a tool for the moral-aesthetic evaluation of “customary law.” In this article, I follow the history of the PNG repugnancy clause from its colonial origins and through the relevant case law since the country's independence in order to ask both how the clause acquired its non-legal meaning through legal usage, and why it has been retained in its original form in PNG when so many postcolonial legal regimes have discarded it. Comparative material from Indonesia, sub-Saharan Africa, and especially Australia is used to contextualize the durability of the PNG repugnancy clause, and theoretical material on the affect of disgust and shame is brought to bear in order to understand the use of repugnancy in its moral-aesthetic sense. The article concludes with a meditation on the way the repugnancy clause has enabled the judiciary of PNG to distance the law of the country not simply from an uneducated or inadequately Christian general populace, but also from a history in which all Papua New Guineans were regarded as a contaminating threat to the European colonizers whose legal system the country has inherited

Confidential, accessible point-of-care sexual health services to support the participation of key populations in biobehavioural surveys: lessons for Papua New Guinea and other settings where reach of key populations is limited

To achieve the UNAIDS 90-90-90 targets at a national level, many countries must accelerate service coverage among key populations. To do this, key population programs have adopted methods similar to those used in respondent-driven sampling (RDS) to expand reach. A deeper understanding of factors from RDS surveys that enhance health service engagement can improve key population programs. To understand the in-depth lives of key populations, acceptance of expanded point-of-care biological testing and determine drivers of participation in RDS surveys, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 111 key population participants (12–65 years) were purposefully selected from six biobehavioral surveys (BBS) in three cities in Papua New Guinea. Key populations were female sex workers, men who have sex with men, and transgender women. Four reasons motivated individuals to participate in the BBS: peer referrals; private, confidential, and stigma-free study facilities; "one-stop shop" services that provided multiple tests and with same-day results, sexually transmitted infection treatment, and referrals; and the desire to know ones’ health status. Biobehavioral surveys, and programs offering key population services can incorporate the approach we used to facilitate key population engagement in the HIV cascade

Imdeduya - Variants of a myth of love and hate from the Trobriand Islands of Papua New Guinea

This volume presents five variants of the Imdeduya myth: two versions of the actual myth, a short story, a song and John Kasaipwalova’s English poem “Sail the Midnight Sun”. This poem draws heavily on the Trobriand myth which introduces the protagonists Imdeduya and Yolina and reports on Yolina’s intention to marry the girl so famous for her beauty, on his long journey to Imdeduya’s village and on their tragic love story. The texts are compared with each other with a final focus on the clash between orality and scripturality. Contrary to Kasaipwalova’s fixed poetic text, the oral Imdeduya versions reveal the variability characteristic for oral tradition. This variability opens up questions about traditional stability and destabilization of oral literature, especially questions about the changing role of myth – and magic – in the Trobriand Islanders' society which gets more and more integrated into the by now “literal” nation of Papua New Guinea. This e-book is available under the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 license