Papua New Guinea Accepts Further UPR Recommendations

Immediately after its UPR session in May, the government of Papua New Guinea indicated its acceptance of seventy five of the one hundred and forty six recommendations put to it in the course of its review. However only two recommendations were rejected outright with the remaining sixty nine to be the subject of further consideration.

At the recently completed session of the Human Rights Council, PNG indicated that it would accept a further thirty nine recommendations, which means that it has accepted a total of one hundred and fourteen of the one hundred and forty six recommendations made to it.

In a statement to the Human Rights Council on the occasion of the formal adoption of the UPR report for PNG, Edmund Rice International commended the government on its decision to ratify the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities and on its commitment to create a data-base for persons with disabilities to inform planning and policy development. Both of these recommendations were among those made in the ERI submission which were put forward by Australia, Mexico and Slovenia on behalf of ERI.

The statement also urged the government of PNG to establish partnerships with appropriate oganisations (such as Callan Family Services) in order to assess the needs of those with disabilities, to conduct services for the education and rehabilitation of people with disabilities, and to engage in the necessary capacity building to educate community-based rehabilitation workers and health professionals who have contact with people with disabilities in the course of their work.