Madang women do not call for expanded application of capital punishment

By Fr. Giorgio Licini PIME - CBC Communications

15 MAY 2013. Madang women leaders and professionals, though invoking tougher penalties, refrained yesterday from calling for capital punishment for heinous crimes; rather, they gave more attention to the root causes of violence in a public debate at Divine Word University on the theme “Do not present demands, present solutions”. The activity was organized in preparation for the nationwide day of “morning” (haus cry) today to commemorate the victims of violence against women and ask for action from the government.

The widespread breakdown of the family came out of the debate as the main reason for the present situation of violence in the country. Children growing up without proper care and education become fertile ground for criminality and deviant behavior. Furthermore, coupled with the urban drift and precarious employment conditions in settlements, family problems reveal the difficult transition of PNG society from the traditional life in rural and isolated villages, with century-old traditions and laws, to the modern world of cash economy, mobility and media communication.

The public further added to the debate by highlightening the inequality introduced in modern society by very different levels of income, the easy access to pornographic material through the internet, and the plague of rape which for some should be punished by death, now only reserved to the crime of “willful murder” and not actually implemented. (www.cbcpngsi.org – giorgiolicini@yahoo.com)