Fiji: Gender violence common in Fiji

August 15, 2007 - (Fiji Times) The cases of gender-based violence are most prominent in Fiji compared to other Pacific islands, says Doctor Wame Baravilala, UNFPA's adviser in reproductive health.

He made the comment at UNFPA's Regional Consultation meeting at the Southern Cross Hotel in Suva yesterday.

In his presentation on the progress of the pilot project on Men as Partners/Men's involvement in reproductive health and gender-based violence, Dr Baravilala said while gender equality was one of UNFPA's main mandates, in the Pacific the main concern was gender-based violence.

He said gender-based violence was the same as the term violence against women and children and even though the statistics were not readily available, its existence was common knowledge in Fiji.

"UNICEF is our partner in this and they want to look at child abuse as part of the issues related to gender-based violence," Dr Baravilala said.

He said UNFPA had undertaken studies of the issue of gender-based violence in Pacific Islands like Samoa and the Solomon Islands but at the moment there were no plans to launch that kind of study in Fiji.

He said the lack of interest from Fiji to undertake a study into the extent of gender-based violence was because the government had more important issues in mind. The UNFPA had managed to identify ways of reaching the male population to create awareness on gender violence.

He said one way was to involve them in discussion on the issue and talking to them when they are with their partners.

"This project has had a major success and because of that International Labour Organisation had started discussions in the workplace and spread it to the wider part of the labour market,

"The project has helped to train 50 trainers (35 in Fiji and 15 in Solomon Islands) and four peer counsellors in each country," he said.

Dr Baravilala said gender-based violence could be reduced and controlled if more work was done on awareness campaign.

From:http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=68549