Death Registration
Papua New Guinea
Medicolegal Death Investigations
Medicolegal Death Investigations Authority
What type of medicolegal death investigation (MLDI) system does the country have?
Recommended Practice based on International Guidelines
MLDI systems can be categorized into four types: law enforcement-led systems, coroner systems, medical examiner systems, and coroner/medical examiner hybrid systems. There is no best practice. All four types of systems are capable of providing quality information to the 5 MDLI questions: 1) Who died (i.e., what was the person’s name, if known)? 2) When did the death occur? 3) Where did the death occur? 4) What was the cause of death? and 5) What was the manner of death (e.g., natural, accident, suicide, homicide, or undetermined)?Papua New Guinea Legal Analysis
The medicolegal death investigation authority is the coroner. Papua New Guinea’s Judicial and Legal Services Commission appoints a coroner and specifies the province or provinces within which the coroner has jurisdiction.Law Source
Does the law clearly state what types of cases must be referred to the MLDI authority and is this in accordance with international guidance?
Recommended Practice based on International Guidelines
Deaths due to known or suspected unnatural or external causes should be referred to the Medicolegal Death Investigation (MLDI) authority. This includes deaths due to violence, injury, self-harm, suspicious causes, and sudden, unexplained or unexpected deaths. The types of cases that must be report to the MLDI system are usually contained in a code of criminal procedure, rather than in the civil registration law .Papua New Guinea Legal Analysis
A coroner has jurisdiction to inquire into the death of a person who was killed, drowned, died a sudden death of unknown cause, or died under suspicious or unusual circumstances; where there is no medical certificate of the cause of death from a medical practitioner; where the deceased was not attended by a medical practitioner within three months before death; deaths under anesthetic in the course of a medical, surgical, dental or similar operation; deaths directly attributable to an accident that occurred within a year and a day of the date of the accident; deaths in custody; or deaths where the Principal Legal Adviser advises that investigation of a death is warranted.
Any person who is aware of the finding of a body or a death in suspicious or unusual circumstances must immediately give notice to the nearest coroner, directly or via a commissioned officer of the Police Force. Failure to give notice is punishable by a fine of up to K20 (equivalent to approximately USD $5).
Law Source
Death in custody
Does the law mandate that law enforcement and/or heads of custodial institutions report all deaths in custody to the medicolegal death investigation authority?
Recommended Practice based on International Guidelines
All deaths in custody should be viewed as potentially unlawful or suspicious deaths andshould therefore be referred to the medical-legal authorities. “Deaths in custody” refers to those deaths in which the circumstances of the death place the decedent in either direct or indirect contact with law enforcement in such settings as incarceration, apprehension and pursuit. For deaths that occur in a detention facility, the head of the detention facility or the head of health services within the detention facility should initiate the process of notifying the medical-legal authorities. For deaths that occur during pursuit or apprehension, the police chief should refer the death to the medical-legal authorities.
Law Source
Papua New Guinea Legal Analysis
A coroner must inquire into cases where a person dies in a corrective institution, rural lock-up or police lock-up, or while a prisoner or in custody, or in a mental hospital or other institution “under such circumstances as to require an inquest”. There is no specific provision on notices of deaths in custody. Any person who is aware of the finding of a body or a death in suspicious or unusual circumstances must immediately give notice to the nearest coroner, directly or via a commissioned officer of the Police Force.The law is silent on deaths that occur during pursuit or other forms of direct or indirect contact with law enforcement.