6 Feb 2014

Education vital for ending violence against women in PNG

7:37 pm on 6 February 2014

Amnesty International says the Papua New Guinea government must take immediate and basic steps to curb ongoing violence directed at women.

The organisation says one year after 20 year old Kepari Leniata was burned alive in a sorcery attack her killers have not been brought to justice.

It says this is just one of many violent attacks on women from which the perpetrators continue to escape justice.

Amnesty's Pacific researcher Kate Schuetze says the government has a responsibility to use education to end the high rates of violence.

And she says police need to be properly resourced and facilities step up as safe houses for women.

a lot of women are at high risk of violence, or they have been attacked and they have no means of escaping their village or their community and getting to safety. There're not enough women's shelters, there are no fully Government funded women's shelters in Papua New Guinea."