AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT 2016/17

the outcomes were not known at the end of
the year.
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS
The government failed to address widespread
sexual and gender-based violence in
legislation or in practice. Cultural practices
were allowed to persist, including the custom
whereby wives are forced to repay a “bride
price” to their husbands if they wish to
separate from him, placing women in abusive
marriages at greater risk. Women accused of
“sorcery” were subjected to violence from the
community.
There was also limited psychosocial
support, women’s shelters or other services to
protect women from domestic violence.
DISCRIMINATION – SEX WORKERS
There were high levels of violence by state
and non-state actors against sex workers on
grounds of their gender identity, sexual
orientation or status as sex workers and as a
result of legislation criminalizing sex work. 1
Systemic gender inequality and
discrimination in education, employment and
in the community generally, forced many
women, including transgender women, and
gay men into selling sex for a living. Police
officers were responsible for violations against
sex workers, such as rape, physical assault,
arbitrary arrest and detention and other illtreatment.
The criminalization of same-sex
sexual relations as well as of sex work
continued to drive and compound violence
and discrimination against gay and
transgender people. It also led to
discrimination in the provision of health care
and undermined the prevention and
treatment of HIV.
REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS
As of 30 November, around 900 refugees
and asylum-seekers, all men, remained in
two Australian-run detention centres on
Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island (see
Australia entry). In April, the Supreme Court
held that their detention − for over three
years − was illegal and unconstitutional. It
ordered the Australian and Papua New
Guinean governments to close the camps
immediately. Both camps remained open at
the end of the year.
Refugees and asylum-seekers filed a civil
court case seeking orders to force the camps’
closure; for them to be returned to Australia;
and for compensation for their unlawful
detention.
A Sudanese refugee, Faysal Ishak Ahmed,
died on 24 December, after being airlifted
from one of the detention centres, to an
Australian hospital, after a fall and a seizure.
Refugees in the centre said his health had
deteriorated over months but he
was not given adequate health care.
There were continued reports of violence
against refugees and asylum-seekers for
which the perpetrators were rarely held to
account. In April, two Papua New Guinean
nationals employed in one of the detention
centres were convicted of murdering asylumseeker
Reza Berat in 2014 although others
allegedly involved were not prosecuted.
In November, the Australian government
announced that some of the refugees
detained on Nauru (see Nauru entry) and
Manus Island would be resettled in the USA.
1. Outlawed and abused: Criminalizing sex work in Papua New Guinea
(ASA 34/4030/2016)
PARAGUAY
Republic of Paraguay
Head of state and government: Horacio Manuel Cartes
Jara
Figures on poverty reduction improved,
although children and adolescents
continued to be those principally affected.
Indigenous Peoples continued to be denied
their rights to land and to free, prior and
informed consent on projects affecting
them. Both Indigenous Peoples and Afro-
Paraguayans faced racial discrimination. A
bill to eliminate all forms of discrimination
was pending approval at the end of the year.
There were reports of violations of freedom
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