New research finds Fiji’s rates of violence against women and girls among the highest in the world

The Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre (FWCC) has published the findings from a national survey on violence against women and girls. FWCC replicated the survey approach developed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for its Multi-country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence Against Women. The report, Somebody’s life, everybody’s business! provides:

• data on the prevalence of physical, sexual, emotional and economic violence against women by husbands/intimate partners;
• data on the prevalence of physical and sexual assault of women and girls by others (non-partners), including rape, attempted rape and child sexual assault;
• detailed information on the impacts of men’s violence, including on women’s physical, mental and reproductive health, women’s work and ability to earn an income, their participation in organisations, and the short-term and long-term effects on children;
• data on women’s attitudes to gender based violence and women’s human rights, how women cope with violence, and the risk factors associated with gender based violence.

The findings include:

Fiji’s rates of violence against women and girls are among the very highest in the world: 64% of women who have ever been in an intimate relationship have experienced physical and/or sexual violence by a husband or intimate partner in their lifetime. This compares to an estimated global prevalence for physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence over a woman’s lifetime of 30%. In Fiji, 24% of women are suffering from physical or sexual partner violence today.

Every day, 43 women are injured, 1 is permanently disabled, and 71 lose consciousness in Fiji.

The report states "Some individuals, organisations and sections of the media continue to trivialise the problem and many people in Fiji believe that violence happens rarely, or that it is minor. These myths are exploded by the findings in this report, which describe a terrible reality for many women living with violence. This includes severe and repeated attacks akin to torture, coupled with humiliating emotional abuse and high levels of coercive control. The high proportion of women who have experienced very severe physical attacks is alarming: 44% or more than 2 in 5 ever-partnered women have been punched, kicked, dragged, beaten up, choked, burned, threatened with a weapon, or actually had a weapon used against them."

The coordinator of the Fiji Women's Crisis Centre Shamima Ali said, "It is taken a lot more seriously but there are still huge areas where improvement needs to occur. There is increased information, increased knowledge and increased concern around this issue over the years. And more people are coming on board so that is a positive thing."

"We want to present it [the report] to government and create a lot more inter-agency cooperation both with non-governmental organisations and government entities."

The research was funded by the Australian Government's aid programme.

In Auckland, a Fijian Indian family violence prevention campaign was launched in November 2013.

Media:

Fiji among world's worst for violence against women, Australian Network News, 12.12.13

Image: Fijian sunset (cropped) by Alex Kehr. Licence: Creative Commons Attribution