Founded in Mount Hagen, Hope Pro Bono Legal Inc. is a registered not-for-profit community legal centre committed to bridging the gap between law and those who have been left behind by it.
Hope Pro Bono Legal Inc. is a legally constituted, incorporated association registered under the Associations Incorporation Act 2023 of Papua New Guinea (IPA Reg. No. 5-122523667) on 24 October 2023. We were established to address a critical gap in access to justice — particularly for women, children, and rural communities who are disproportionately affected by Gender-Based Violence (GBV), Sorcery Accusation Related Violence (SARV), family law disputes, and systemic human rights violations.
Operating from Mount Hagen in the Western Highlands Province, we serve as a community legal centre for the Highlands Region — an area home to a significant population with limited access to formal legal services. Access to justice remains a huge unmet legal need across the Highlands Region, with private legal representation prohibitively expensive for the majority of citizens and community legal centre services yet to reach this part of Papua New Guinea.
We are actively seeking institutional partnerships and collaborative funding to expand our reach to all Highlands provinces and ultimately across all 22 provinces of Papua New Guinea.
"A just and equitable society, particularly in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, where all citizens, regardless of economic status or gender, have access to justice and their basic human rights are respected."
— Our VisionEverything we do is guided by a clear mandate — to ensure that every person in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea can access justice, regardless of their economic circumstances.
The Highlands Region faces one of the most severe access to justice gaps in Papua New Guinea. Hope Pro Bono Legal Inc. was founded specifically to fill this gap.
Papua New Guinea consistently records among the highest rates of gender-based violence in the Asia-Pacific region. Women and girls in the Highlands face disproportionate exposure to domestic violence, sexual assault, forced marriage, and land rights violations. Legal representation for GBV survivors is extremely limited, and many cases go unreported or unprosecuted.
Sorcery Accusation Related Violence (SARV) is a severe and growing human rights crisis in PNG. Individuals — predominantly women and elderly persons — are falsely accused of witchcraft and subjected to brutal violence, torture, and murder. The Glassman Act — amendments to Papua New Guinea's Criminal Code passed in 2022 — criminalises the practices of "glassman" and "glassmeri" (traditional diviners who identify alleged sorcerers), holding them and those who seek their services accountable for instigating violence. Despite this legislation, enforcement remains inconsistent and victims rarely receive legal representation.
Access to justice remains a huge unmet legal need across the Highlands Region. While the Office of the Public Solicitor continues to do its best to meet the ever-growing demands of Papua New Guinea's expanding population, private legal representation remains prohibitively expensive for the majority of citizens. Legal aid organisations operating in urban areas such as Port Moresby do not extend their services to the Highlands Region — leaving an enormous gap that Hope Pro Bono Legal Inc. was established to address.