Mens' Matters: Changing Masculine Identities in Papua New Guinea

Human rights discourse has increasingly been called upon to provide a foundation for greater equality between men and women. This is particularly the case when confronted by the issue of men and violence in the current context of Papua New Guinea (PNG). Human rights as an ideal inspires most aid agencies, and church-based agencies such as Caritas promote human rights ideals, but also draw inspiration from Scriptural and theological traditions. In PNG, given that most people profess Christianity, a church-based agency may play an important role in interpreting rights language and values into cultural frameworks meaningful to people in a given local context. This article tells of the strategies used and issues encountered by church workers meeting about masculinities (or what have been called ‘Men’s Matters’) over a number of years with a group of men from the Western Province in PNG. This case study of the Men’s Matters program provides insights from men’s perspective on the task of negotiating concepts of human rights in PNG.