WUNRN
Islands Business - April 2012
PACIFIC - VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN -
SERIOUS PROBLEM - STUDIES - LAWS +
Sean
Hobbs & Gina Houng Lee
Sexual and gender-based violence is a huge problem in the Pacific region,
affecting around two in every three women.
One woman in Honiara said: “Every time when he went out to drink, I did not
know what was on his mind. If I saw him when he came home and he had a
different expression on his face, I knew for sure he would ask me for sex, and
although I did not want to, for sure, he will force himself on me. So because I
was scared that he might bash me, I agreed. Not that I was willing.”
Experiences like this are all too common in the Pacific, according to research.
Recent studies have unearthed some uncomfortable truths.
The Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and the United Nations
Population Fund, in partnership with the governments of Kiribati, Samoa and
Solomon Islands, conducted studies on violence against women by intimate male
partners.
These studies found that 68 percent of women in Kiribati suffered physical or
sexual violence in 2008, while in Samoa, the figure was 41 percent in 2000 and
in Solomon Islands, it was 64 percent in 2008.
The studies formed part of a global World Health Organisation (WHO) research
project, which used the same methodology in every surveyed country. In 2011,
the Vanuatu Women’s Centre also conducted a survey using the WHO methodology.
It found that 60 percent of women in Vanuatu experience intimate partner
violence.
The surveyed Pacific Islands countries were found to have comparatively high
prevalence rates of violence against women.
Experts and counsellors in the field believe the statistics from Kiribati,
Samoa, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu are an adequate representation of the scale
of the problem right across the region.
While the WHO methodology focused on physical or sexual abuse perpetrated by
intimate male partners, other research point to women in the Pacific also
suffering high rates of physical and sexual violence perpetrated by men who are
not their intimate partners.
The problem of violence against women throughout the Pacific can be split into
two main categories—domestic violence and sexual violence.
Domestic violence includes physical, psychological and economic violence within
domestic relationships, while sexual violence can be perpetrated by intimate
partners or others.
The impact of violence can be devastating. An Amnesty International report
published in September 2011 contained a harrowing account of sexual violence
experienced by an 18-year-old woman living in Kobito 4 settlement in the
Solomon Islands.
“I was gang-raped by six boys from the nearby settlement,” she said. “They
grabbed me and carried me to the bush where I was raped. They each raped me and
then left me there after threatening to kill me and my family. I had a black
eye and was sore. I was so ashamed for being raped. I vowed not to tell my
family because it would bring shame to them.”
The cost of violence
Not only profoundly disturbing, violence against women is also hugely
expensive. Expenditure in areas such as law enforcement, welfare and social and
healthcare services place a huge burden on national economies.
Sir Albert Palmer, Chief Justice of Solomon Islands, revealed in January that
sexual offences, overwhelmingly affecting women and children, account for 50
percent of the country’s criminal workload.
Considering that many sexual offences go unreported, the cost to the state could
be considerably higher if all sexual crimes were reported, investigated and
prosecuted.
A concerted and well-resourced effort to prevent violence through better
policy, laws and education would be a sound investment, according to the United
Nations Expert Group on Good Practices in Legislation on Violence against
Women.
In 2003, former Governor of the Reserve Bank of Fiji, Savenaca Narube,
estimated that domestic violence in the Fijian economy cost FJ$300 million, or
the equivalent of seven percent of GDP annually.
This figure, which includes the direct costs to affected individuals and
government, would be considerably higher, he said, if opportunity costs were
also included. That is, the cost of alternatives foregone as a result of
violence.
Professor Biman Prasad, Dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics at the
University of the South Pacific, recently revisited Narube’s estimates.
Accounting for population growth and other factors, Prasad calculated in 2011
the cost of domestic violence in the Fiji economy is now closer to FJ$740
million per annum and represents around 6.6 percent of GDP.
He agrees with Narube and says the total would be much higher if opportunity
costs were included.
The cost of violence against women is not only borne by individuals and
governments; areas of the private sector also lose out.
Women, who represent 50 percent of the population and a significant share of
the labour market, can suffer lost or lowered productivity after experiencing
sexual, physical or psychological abuse.
This violence also alters patterns of consumer spending by directing money
toward responses to violence, such as medical and legal expenses away from
other necessities or leisure items.
It can also hinder the ability of women to save and invest and it reduces
government’s ability to invest in other priority areas and thereby diminishes
opportunities for businesses operating in these sectors.
Behaviour and attitudes
While violence can be seen to disproportionately affect poorer women who have
fewer resources to protect themselves, the fact is that it affects women across
the social hierarchy.
Sir Michael Somare, former Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, drew attention
to this fact in November 2007.
Referring to the types of men who commit violence against women, he said,
“There are some even very highly educated Papua New Guineans, I am ashamed to
say”.
Somare was responding to a spate of horrific reports in the local daily
newspaper, the Post-Courier, including one about a police commander in Oro
province who beat his wife so severely that she had to be flown to Port Moresby
for treatment.
Another described how a man in the Western Highlands beat his wife and ripped
an unborn child from her womb. “We have a big attitude problem in our country,”
said Somare.
He called on violent men to change their behaviour and attitudes and reconcile
with their wives. “I would like to appeal to all Papua New Guineans—let us set
good examples. Good family life is important.”
Similar comments were made by the Prime Minister of Tonga, Lord Tu’ivakano,
last month. “Perpetrators of violence are just as likely to be well respected
and educated Tongan men,” said the Prime Minister, speaking at the launch of
the findings of a national study on domestic violence against women, conducted
by a Tongan women’s NGO, Ma’a Fafine mo e Famili.
“The immediate response we must have is to accept that violence against women
is a crime. It is a crime that disputes our traditional values and a crime
that will cause unspeakable decay to society if not addressed,” he said.
Changing behaviour and attitudes in the region is undoubtedly an important task
for individuals and communities. It is also the responsibility of states under
international law.
In the Pacific, only Palau and Tonga have not ratified the United Nations
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
(CEDAW), which places obligations on states to address discrimination,
subordination and violence affecting women.
It is argued that while one act of domestic violence may not invoke the
protection of international law, a state’s institutionalised inaction in the
face of a pervasive domestic violence problem does violate its international
obligations.
Pacific governments are therefore in breach of their obligations if significant
gaps exist in the legal framework and state mechanisms fail to address these.
Similarly, all Pacific Islands states are party to the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), requiring them to: “take all
appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to
protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or
abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including
sexual abuse, while in the care of parents, legal guardians or any other
person”.
Children are affected by exposure to violence in the household either directly
or by extension. Domestic violence impacts children’s physical, social and
psychological welfare and development.
Pacific states have a duty under CRC to ensure that preventive and remedial
measures are implemented to address domestic and sexual violence where it
affects children.
It is encouraging to see Pacific Islands governments taking steps to honour
their commitments. Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Solomon Islands requested and
received a country visit from the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence
against Women, Rashida Manjoo, in March.
Her mandate in both cases was to examine all forms of violence against women in
the family, in the community, perpetrated or condoned by the state, and in the
transnational sphere—which often involves organised crime facilitating the
trafficking and commercial exploitation of women and children.
Manjoo confirmed that violence against women is a significant issue in PNG and
Solomon Islands and congratulated both countries on the positive steps taken to
promote women’s human rights, saying she was encouraged by this progress.
One of the main challenges she identified during her missions was the “limited
access to justice available to women victims of violence”.
This is an issue that women’s rights activists and
counsellors having been lobbying governments to address, not only in PNG and
Solomon Islands, but in virtually all Pacific Islands countries.
The Rapporteur’s findings add new weight to the momentum. “It is an important
lobbying opportunity,” says Edwina Kotoisuva, Deputy Coordinator of the Fiji
Women’s Crisis Centre.
“It is an opportune time to look at law reform initiatives and get governments
to make some commitments,” says Kotoisuva.
“Even though Manjoo went only to Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea, it’s a
significant thing for Pacific women as a whole.”
Old laws
SPC/RRRT has been assisting Pacific Islands countries to reform antiquated laws
and legal practices concerning women and children.
Often these were inherited from colonial powers and in many countries in the
Pacific they still remain in force.
Unlike other areas of law that may have been reformed or revised continually in
the years since independence, it is only recently that Pacific Islands
governments have turned their attention to substantially reforming laws that
address domestic and sexual violence.
Mere Pulea, a former High Court Judge of Fiji now based in Wellington, has been
working with SPC/RRRT to assist Pacific countries draft new legislation.
Pulea points to the issue of rape to illustrate why outdated laws need to be
changed. At the moment, most laws dealing with rape in the Pacific are designed
to respond to crimes where a man has assaulted a woman in a specific way.
They fail to recognise the different types of rape affecting women and girls,
or same sex rape—where a man has raped a boy, for example.
Pulea says, “The definition of rape in criminal law—where legal reform hasn’t
taken place—is very limited and quite narrow. It is limited to penile and
vaginal penetration and does not recognise rape by other objects or the rape of
other body parts,” says Pulea.
“You’ve got to look at newer legislation, like the law that now exists in the
United Kingdom, where without the consent of the victim, if a person
intentionally rapes the vagina or anus or mouth of another person with the penis
or another object, then that falls within the definition of rape.
At the moment, in many Pacific countries where legal reform has not taken
place, if a person assaults a victim by any other means outside what is
described as penile and vaginal penetration, you’ve got to look at the indecent
assault category, which carries much lesser penalties.”
There are other discriminatory factors in outmoded laws. Common in many Pacific
Islands countries is a requirement that victims of sexual violence show ‘proof
of resistance’, or evidence that they fought their assailant in an effort to
escape.
And many countries still allow a common law practice referred to as the
‘corroboration warning’ where a judge will warn him or herself or a jury that
it is dangerous to convict on the independent and uncorroborated evidence of
the victim.
Many courts in the Pacific also allow the admission of the victim’s past sexual
history, which can affect the credibility of testimony. These practices, which
are discriminatory and allow many offenders to walk free, have been abolished
in countries such as Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
An area of legal practice that is uniquely Pacific is customary reconciliation
practices, such as i-bulubulu in Fiji or ifoga in Samoa.
In instances where sexual assaults are dealt with in a kastom or village court
involving the assailant and the victim’s families, the local police and state
courts may refuse to lay charges or prosecute, or magistrates may reduce the
offender’s sentence in light of a traditional reconciliation process.
This is a contentious issue, according to women’s rights campaigners, because
the nature of these ‘forgiveness ceremonies’ has changed dramatically over
time.
Many now take place without the permission or even the participation of the
affected woman or girl.
Pacific Islands countries have been slow to define marital rape as well, with
the consequence that most rapes in marriages or by former partners following
separation cannot be prosecuted, in spite of the fact that a woman can still be
subjected to horrific sexual violence living in matrimony or targeted for
sexual assault by an estranged spouse.
Before domestic violence and criminal matters even make it to court, they must
first be filed with police and investigated. Issues arise here as well.
The majority of police officers in the Pacific are men and there is a need for
more comprehensive and sustained gender sensitisation and training to help male
officers respond to the needs of women and children affected by violence.
Police and court procedures
“Sexual violation cases are hugely under-reported,” says Ofa
Guttenbeil-Likiliki, Director of the Tonga Women and Children’s Crisis Centre.
“Sometimes a woman is uncomfortable going to the police because she knows the
policeman on duty or is in some way related to him or because the policeman is
related to her perpetrator.
“And particularly with sexual violation cases because the last thing they want
is to go and talk about it at a police station where the majority of the
officers are men and that may make them feel really uncomfortable.
“In many cases, when a woman does try to report a crime, she is turned away at
the initial point of contact with the police and told she needs more evidence.
“But we’ve worked with lawyers external to the centre and they tell us that it
is the police’s job to do the investigation and get the evidence for a court
case, and if they don’t do that, then the case can easily get kicked out of
court.
“So we tried to understand this from the perspective of the police who are
under-resourced. What prevents them from making a proper investigation? And, of
course, we found that many women who do report come back the next day or the
day after and try and get the charges dropped. So for the police to begin a
full investigation, and have that risk, it is a discouragement for them to
carry out an investigation.”
Many jurisdictions around the world have now introduced ‘no-drop’ domestic
violence policies, where police are obliged to investigate and prosecute
domestic violence, even if a victim wants the charges withdrawn.
After a complainant files a report with police, she commonly experiences
intense pressure from the perpetrator and from other family members to drop
charges. Victims also fear for their safety or for the safety of children and
begin to experience doubt.
However, in criminal law, assault is considered a
crime against the state, and public prosecutors will bring matters to court on
behalf of victims. So, ‘no drop’ policies are an indication to authorities to
continue to pursue domestic violence perpetrators, even when the complainant
decides to withdraw.
The Pacific Prevention of Domestic Violence Programme (PPDVP) has been working
with national police forces to better prevent and respond to domestic violence
since 2006. The PPDVP, which is an initiative of Pacific Islands Chiefs of
Police in partnership with the New Zealand Aid Programme and New Zealand Police
supports ‘no drop’ policies in the context of each country.
“Tonga has a ‘no drop’ policy,” says Sergeant Setonia Polutele from the
Tongan Police Force Domestic Violence Unit. If the complainant comes today and
then comes tomorrow to reconcile, we use the policy,” he says.
When cases are successfully prosecuted in Tonga, the penalties are often very
low. Although affected women are not seeking large fines or financial
compensation, according to Guttenbeil-Likiliki, when fines are imposed, family
members often have to contribute money to help pay the fine and the woman gets
blamed.
What women are seeking is a resolution, an end to the violence, and in
instances where they become separated from the man or where he is imprisoned;
they want the right to continue using the family’s assets.
Guttenbeil-Likiliki explains: “If it was an extreme case, for example child
sexual abuse, then he may get sent away to prison for seven years.
“The woman wants to be able to use the land, to cultivate it and produce food
for her children but because the property is owned by the husband, she needs
his permission.”
New legislation
Guttenbeil-Likiliki hopes the new legislation will allow women to seek
efficient and effective redress.
Tonga has requested assistance from SPC/RRRT to draft a new, comprehensive
violence against women (VAW) legislation.
Under the current legislation, women who have been seriously assaulted often
have to sit in court proceedings for months or years and need to instigate
several different cases to obtain a conviction and receive court orders for
maintenance, protection and custody.
The cases frequently experience delays because relevant agencies, such as
police and hospitals, have not completed the necessary reports. Plus, the
courts offer little support or counseling on behalf of the state.
The introduction of ‘comprehensive’ legislation, on the other hand, is meant to
address these issues. It specifically defines and legislates against the types
of violence experienced by women and demands a coordinated multi-sectoral
response, creating better linkages among the courts, police, healthcare,
welfare and support services, such as counseling.
It also encourages public sector employees, in areas such as police,
healthcare, welfare and education, to receive sensitisation training and
education on violence against women.
There is an emphasis on preventive strategies in the legislation to reduce the
incidence of violence, supporting abused women and children, and making
processes faster and easier to navigate.
Tonga hopes to table draft comprehensive legislation on violence against women
in parliament later this year.
Numerous Pacific countries have either already gone down this path or are set
to follow.
Vanuatu passed a Family Protection Act in 2008 and the Republic of the Marshall
Islands passed a Domestic Violence, Prevention and Protection Act in 2011.
Both are stand-alone domestic violence laws that contain many elements of a
comprehensive legislative approach, including protection orders and criminal
and civil elements in one piece of legislation. Fiji issued a Domestic Violence
Decree in 2009.
The Government of Kiribati has approved drafting legislation for violence
against women. Samoa has drafted a Family Safety Bill, currently under review by
the Ministry of Justice, and Tuvalu has drafted a Family Protection and
Domestic Violence Bill.
Both are expected to be tabled in Parliament this year.
Leaders take action
In 2009, Pacific Leaders acknowledged in the Cairns Communiqué, that sexual and
gender based violence (SGBV) was an impediment to Pacific societies.
They recognised SGBV as a sensitive issue in Pacific cultures and noted that it
is pervasive and under-reported.
Sexual and gender based violence is ‘a risk to human security and a potentially
destabilising factor for communities and societies alike,’ noted the Leaders.
Acknowledging the prevalence of sexual and gender based violence in the Pacific
‘at all levels of the community’ is a priority, according to the Leaders.
Responding to the seriousness of the Pacific Leaders’ concern in the Cairns
Communiqué, the Pacific Islands Forum Regional Security Committee established a
Reference Group to Address Sexual and Gender Based Violence in 2010.
The Reference Group’s mandate is to raise awareness of the seriousness of SGBV
and its impact on the region, and to establish the issue of SGBV firmly on the
political agendas of Forum member countries. It undertakes country visits in
order to do this.
The Reference Group is also intended to guide national efforts to meet Forum
Leaders’ commitment to eradicate SGBV and to ensure all individuals have equal
protection of the law and equal access to justice.
“In practice this means, looking at what’s happening on the ground from
different angles and identifying what gaps exist in the legislation, in policy
and in operations.
Then we will come up with a set of recommendations for what needs to be done,”
says Fekitamoeloa ‘Utoikamanu, Deputy Director-General SPC and a member of the
Reference Group.
“The group will be working with the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat to
provide a progress report to the Forum Regional Security Council on the
implementation of the national efforts and efforts of the Reference Group.
“Then it will move forward to the Forum Officials Committee and then on to the
Leaders’ agenda,” adds ‘Utoikamanu.
The Pacific Leader’s meeting in Cook Islands in August will also hear from the
Pacific Regional Working Group on Women, Peace and Security, which was
established in December 2010. Co-chaired by SPC and FemLINK Pacific, a women’s
media initiative, the Working Group was conceived as a vehicle for the Pacific
to advance the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325: Women,
Peace and Security.
This resolution, which deals mainly with issues surrounding women in armed
conflict, also has significant crossover into the area of SGBV.
The Working Group is responsible for developing a Regional Action Plan on
Women, Peace and Security, which will complement the recommendations of the
Forum’s SGBV Reference Group in the area of sexual and gender based violence.
Teretia Tokam, SGBV coordinator with the Kiribati Ministry for Internal and
Social Affairs, says she will be celebrating when Kiribati passes new legislation
that better protects i-Kiribati women and children.
She will need to wait until later this year and possibly until 2013 before that
dream is realised but Tokam says she is used to waiting. “It has been a long
process with many challenges but we have achieved so much.
“We have already got approval from cabinet to start working on the draft bill
and also cabinet has appointed a taskforce,” she says.
The Pacific is surely and steadily moving forward with a mandate to protect its
women and children.