Transcript
When several aid agencies recently found millions of Pacific children were facing physical violence, they described it as "shocking."
But those working in the region say this has been enabled by a lack of human rights data, hindering effective policy-making.
In Tuvalu, the country's first human rights institution was set up only late last year.
Chief Ombudsman Sa'aga Talu Teafa says they're still figuring out the best approach.
"It's very young, we call it very young. That's why we are here to learn and to know what other institutions or what other human rights defenders doing regarding human rights implementation."
It's the same in Samoa, where recently the Ombudsman's office, finding no data on violence, had to come up with its own to produce a report.
A legal officer at the Ombudsman focused on human rights, Charles Dean, says there are resourcing hurdles too.
"There's only three of us who work in the office to do that. So that added on challenge, but definitely it was a very big challenge. And it sometimes it holds us back from writing reports that we're going to be effective to influence government decisions and government policy."
The Wellington-based Human Rights Measurement Initiative admits its data on the Pacific is porous.
Its economic and social rights lead, Susan Randolph, says a lot of it's anecdotal and more comprehensive research is needed.
"There is some economic and social rights data, but it has two challenges. One, often the data is quite old. So we may be looking at decade back, and we'd like to look at something more current to see what the changes have occurred in the countries. And secondly, it's not taking into account the resources that countries have."
Ms Randolph says better data will help both Pacific governments and civil society groups tackle human rights abuses.
The initiative's work has also won the backing of the New Zealand Government, which is providing around $US400,000 dollars over the next year.
A Foreign Ministry spokesperson says future funding will be contingent on the outcome of a review.
The initiative's development lead, Anne-Marie Brook, says it's the first time they're accepting money from a government.
"Because human rights are so politically sensitive, it's really clear that, that human rights needs to be measured independently of government. Because governments often face conflicts of interest. And so, in negotiating the grant from MFAT we made it really clear that we needed to put an additional kind of clause in our contract with them to safeguard our independence."
The Human Rights Measurement Initiative will send researchers into the Pacific in the coming months to survey civil society groups and others.
Still, according to New Zealand's Human Rights Commission, the region has a history of resistance to human rights monitoring.
The commission's Pasifika adivsor, Tuiloma Lina-Jodi Vaine Samu, says firmly held faith systems have stymied data collection.
"Our religions, our faiths, our churches, are very, very important to us. But so are our traditional, cultural, ancestral beliefs as well. It's at ui pa'aga, at hui like this we are able to come together, fono, and talk about these issues, these mindsets, so that we can advance human rights forward."
The workshop concludes on Wednesday.
This is Mackenzie Smith.
