Engendering the Courts in Papua New Guinea

Abstract

Legal pluralism is reflected in Papua New Guinea by a system of village courts intended to apply customary law and by a Western-style court system, including a probation service. Village courts have the power to impose penalties for specific "offences," and all courts other than village courts may make probation orders. Women appear before the village court and may be the subject of probation orders by other courts. This article looks at the operation of the village court in relation to female offenders and identifies aspects that tend to disadvantage women charged with village court offences. In contrast, the probation service is identified as assisting women even though it too applies custom in the shaping of probation orders. The conclusion is reached that women offenders believe that they enjoy more sympathetic treatment in the Western-style court system under probation orders than is the case in the customary village court system