| School-leaving age |
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92. Education is neither universal or compulsory in Papua New Guinea, therefore the law does not specify a legal age of entry to school or an age at which children are permitted to leave school. Officially, children are eligible to enrol at 7. However, due to the problems many children have in accessing education, they usually do not enrol until 8 or 9 years of age. Some commence school as late as 15 years old. The biggest problem then is to get children into school and to keep them in school. However, at this stage they are free to leave whenever they choose. Trying to stay in school is a much bigger issue for most Papua New Guinean children and their parents, rather than trying to leave early.
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| Minimum age of employment |
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93. In the Employment Act (sect. 103, 3), persons under 16 shall not be employed outside the home. Exceptions are made for a child of 11-16 years, if the employer obtains a medical certificate to certify the child fit for that type of employment or the written consent of parent or guardian. In addition, the employer must prove that employment is outside of school hours or not prejudicial to the child's education. A child of 14 or 15 years of age may be employed, except in industrial undertakings and the fishing industry, where it can be demonstrated that he is no longer attending school. There is no real ability to police these laws in Papua New Guinea. Furthermore, the issue of schooling is not so relevant when so few children have access to education beyond 12 to 14 years of age.
383. There is no effective State regulation of the employment of children, especially the labour of children who are informally adopted into the home they call family and made to feel indebted, but are actually trapped into long hours of work, lack of rest and leisure, lack of freedom of mobility and association, deprived of the right to education, and sometimes even of the right to medical treatment.
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| Minimum age for marriage |
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79. One of the common determining criteria applied to males is the ability to independently and successfully make gardens, build a house and hunt, i.e. be able to live by their own means and provide for a family. A young man able to satisfy these criteria is for all intents and purposes an adult. In some cases this could be achieved at 14 years of age or less. In the eyes of the community, the onset of menarche renders the female child ready for marriage. Thus parents and the community may accept marriage of children at the age of 14-15, even though the Criminal Code makes it unlawful.
80. The Constitution, domestic law and the Convention are not yet meaningful in the lives of many rural children. Prevailing "traditional acceptance" regarding the age of marriage and other issues relating to the protection of the child make both domestic law and the Convention insignificant in the lives of children in many remote and traditional villages. This fact poses serious problems, even though it is considered to be a temporary situation.
91. In the Marriage Act (chap. 280, sect. 1), a minor is a person below the age of 21 years. Marriageable age for males is 18. Marriageable age for females is 16 years. In exceptional and unusual circumstances, following an inquiry into the relevant facts and circumstances, males of 16 and females of 14 may obtain authorization from a judge or magistrate to marry a particular person of marriageable age. […]
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| Minimum age for criminal responsibility |
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86. A legal "minor" is a person under the age of 18. In the Child Welfare Act (276, sect. 1) a "child" means a boy or girl under the age of 16 years. In the Juvenile Courts Act (sect. 2) an "infant" means a person aged less than 7 years. A "juvenile" is interpreted as a person aged not less than 7 years, and less than 18 years. A child over 7 years therefore assumes legal culpability. The court requires that under the age of 10 years, the prosecution must strictly prove age. Under the Criminal Code (sect. 30) a juvenile under the age of 14 is not considered criminally responsible for any act or omission unless it is proven that at the time of the act of the omission he had the capacity to understand not to act. A juvenile between 7 and 14 years of age is not considered fully responsible for an act unless the Court is satisfied that the child fully understood the law at the time a crime was committed.
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