Victims of sexual abuse at the hands of the clergy are being encouraged to come forward under a new policy released by the Catholic Bishops Conference of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands.

The policy, which the Catholic Church has been working on since the 1990s, outlines clear steps for investigating wrongdoing within the church and encourages members of the congregation to report sexual abuse.

The Director of Right Relationships in Ministry, Brother Frank Hough, helped formulate the new policy.

He told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat program, under the new framework, people wanting to report sexual misconduct could seek advice from a contact person.

"We have what is called a contact person who is the first port of call, so to speak, for a person to make a complaint," he said.

"They explain to the person their options of going through the criminal process, or through the church process, but the person has the option of taking the criminal process or the church process."

Brother Hough said hopefully under the new protocols and guidelines, people from Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands would find it less daunting to report allegations of sexual abuse within the church.

"We find that in the societies in the Pacific, which are often male dominant with a great respect for church leaders and priests and who wish do not bring shame upon the church, the power of being a leader and chief and so on, that people are very reticent to bring claims against the body of a church or priest and more particularly in rural areas," he said.