Call to action to stop violence against women in Fiji

Transcript

A professor at the Fiji National University says something must be done about the high rates of violence against women.

A study by the Fiji Women's Crisis Centre showed 64 percent of Fiji women reported they were assaulted during a relationship.

A United Nations campaign against gender-based violence is underway, called 16 Days of Action Against Gender-Based Violence.

The Dean of Fiji National University College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Professor Ian Rouse, says the message must get through to young men.

He spoke to Alex Perrottet.

IAN ROUSE: Something like 15 percent of women who are pregnant have been involved in gender based violence, and of that, 44 percent have been involved in quite severe violence, so punching or kicking in the stomach. So if we translate that to Fiji, where we have let's say about 20,000 births a year, that would mean 3,000 women have had some kind of form of domestic violence while they're pregnant, say, in a year. And of that, maybe as many as. more than 1,000 have been really severely been kicked in the stomach or punched. And the concern there is that clearly it's a risk to both the mother and child. So the figures are pretty disturbing, they're not unique in the Pacific Islands, we all know there is far too much domestic violence or gender based violence.

ALEX PERROTTET: What needs to be done in terms of education or a shift in attitudes to be able to put an end to this, these are pretty set-in trends as you've said. What in particular are you calling for in Fiji?

IR: Changing pretty well entrenched views about male behaviour, male dominance is difficult. We all say it is completely inappropriate. I just personally cannot accept that there is any creed or culture or religion which will accept that half of the population is inferior, namely women. We just have to challenge that. What we have to do is get in front of young boys, young men, we've got to somehow change the generation, change the attitudes. I guess from a Dean of College of Nursing, Medicine and Health Sciences we need to even re-look at what we provide in our undergraduate education for doctors and nurses and pharmacists and so on. Because we have to let people know that gender based violence isn't acceptable.

AP: Do you think the authorities are doing enough on following up complaints of violence?

IR: I have lived in Fiji for about nearly six years and I think the authorities do a pretty good job here in following up and there are some NGOs that are very strong. But as you'd know, as I know, a lot of women, for cultural or other reasons, are silent, they don't bring forward, they don't come and tell their stories, they're worried about themselves, they're worried about their children. So there's a lot we need to do to encourage women to come and say this has been happening and for processes to run which make it clear that this is not acceptable. It's a violation of human rights. I am not an expert in the area, but my feeling is that the legal processes here, once there is a case identified run reasonably well, there's kind of a no drop policy here, if the case is raised it can't just be put aside, it has to be followed through.