Transcript
SHAMIMA ALI: There is a great need because of the rates of violence against women there is a great need. If we are talking about responding to survivors and prevention work then really the police are major stakeholders and sometimes they become the greatest impediment to women receiving justice or having any kind of protection.
JAMIE TAHANA: Becoming the greatest impediment, in what way?
SA: Well one is that, you know, the attitudes that exist within our society about violence against women, the thinking that if a woman is married the husband can do whatever he wants to do with her, he's got rights over her and things like that. So that carries on into all our institutions so, you know, police do not consider domestic violence as the crime that it is even though around the Pacific there has been new legislation put in place which is a lot more progressive, despite all this we are still having grave problems around police responding and treating intimate partner violence or assault in the home as a serious crime.
JT: And over the past two weeks as you've done this course, did these 30 police officers come to realise this and what was their reaction to realising this?
SA: This is the fourth in the series, so we have seen some changes. So, you know, the officers who are coming in are younger, they have been exposed to some kind of awareness by someone or other, whether it's the New Zealand police, Australian police or their own women's NGOs who are working in this area. So it's getting a little bit easier for them to get onboard and I have really been encouraged by the enthusiasm, the interest and really laying themselves open to accusations and everything else, but they have really been very interactive and have made a great effort to learn.
JT: So you're really starting to see change from within the police forces?
SA: Yes we are, we are seeing the change and a lot more work still is to be done. One of the cries has been from the front line officers for their bosses to be trained because often they give the instruction as to whether people should be charged or whether they shouldn't - you know they sort of get advice from them. So there has been that request that the upper echelons of the police force get trained also, and that's the word that we have started in Fiji with even the police commissioner going through this training.
