Ashlee interviewed Dame Carol Kidu, a tireless campaigner for the rights of women and girls in Papua New Guinea, in October 2014 for the Devpolicy Blog.
For girls and women, [the biggest challenge] is probably defining their space in a rapidly changing society because change can be confusing, frightening and even abusive.Dame Carol Kidu
Through the ‘In Brief’ section of the Devpolicy Blog and interviews, Ashlee has been covering the latest news and research on gender-based violence in PNG and the Pacific region.
Interview examples:
Event summary:
‘In Brief’ examples:
A recent book review of Indonesia Etc. for the Devpolicy Blog.
Elizabeth Pisani, a former newswire journalist who was based in Jakarta during the Suharto era before making a career change into epidemiology, has previously brought us The Wisdom of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels, and the Business of AIDS. Her latest offering, Indonesia Etc.: Exploring the Improbable Nation, takes a ‘random sample’ epidemiological approach to Indonesia’s 17,000ish islands to try to figure out just what holds the country together, against all odds.
This blog post analyses the proposed media law in Timor-Leste, which some commentators fear threatens press freedom, in the context of the wider challenges facing the Timor-Leste media.
In a context of increasing concern around corruption and public spending, the arguments of the government about the law being necessary for quality ring hollow, as does the reasoning that the law will enshrine journalism as a profession with protections.
This law will not solve the quality challenge facing the Timor press. New voices, increased competition and stronger demands from audiences are probably the best hopes, and they cannot be legislated into existence.
Instead, there is a real threat of increasing self-censorship by publications and individual journalists to mitigate their financial and legal risk in the face of the new sanctions that can be imposed under the law, and a real threat to the freedom and diversity of the Timor-Leste media.
Ashlee Betteridge
Minister for Foreign Affairs, The Hon Julie Bishop MP, asked the human rights subcommittee of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade to inquire into and report on the human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific region.
Given the wide scope of the terms of reference for this inquiry, we focused on addressing the family and sexual violence epidemic in Papua New Guinea (PNG).
This submission was prepared by Ms Ashlee Betteridge, Research Officer at the Development Policy Centre, The Australian National University, and Dr Kamalini Lokuge, Fellow at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, The Australian National University.
Download full submission [pdf].
An overview of the recent developments and changes in Australian aid for the cogitAsia blog at the Center for International & Strategic Studies.
An interview with Serena Sumanop, the Executive Director of The Voice Inc, a home-grown Papua New Guinean NGO working to empower young people to contribute to their communities and to development.
Interview with Daisy Plana of the PNG Family and Sexual Violence Case Management Centre on gender-based violence in PNG.
Human rights are enough reason alone to push for an end to early and forced marriage. Groups such as Human Rights Watch have been working on this issue for many years. Still, campaigners now cite a whole host of other reasons to end the practice, such as the improved health, education [pdf] and poverty alleviation outcomes when girls marry later. Child marriage is now squarely framed as a development issue.
Read the full post on child marriage on the Devpolicy Blog.
(Image from Too Young To Wed)
Why don’t Bananas in Pyjamas sleep under mosquito nets or speak Tok Pisin? They are a tropical fruit.
If we are looking to shake up the Australia Network, could television be an area where development and diplomacy harmonise?