British gender activist Posie Parker has left New Zealand, calling it the “worst place for women she has ever visited”.

Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, also known as Posie Parker, shared a photo on social media showing her being escorted by police through Auckland Airport.

She left her rally at Albert Park in Auckland yesterday without speaking, after being overwhelmed by thousands of heckling counter-protesters and pelted with tomato juice.

• READ MORE: RNZ Mediawatch on the coverage of Posie Parker, the provocateur

Controversial Harry Potter author JK Rowling took to Twitter to brand the protest scenes in Auckland yesterday “repellent”.

During a series of Tweets, she said a mob “had assaulted women standing up for their rights”.

Parker posted to Twitter and said she was leaving ‘the worst place for women she has ever visited’.

The activist also claimed she was a victim of a campaign to assassinate her character, boosted by a “corrupt media populated by vile dishonest cult members”.

No Wellington rally
Her departure means her planned rally for Wellington today will not go ahead.

A local group supporting her visit Speak Up For Women NZ had already announced the scheduled rally today in Wellington had been cancelled due to security concerns.

Auckland Pride rejected the idea that the activist had abandoned her Wellington plans due to threats of violence.

There is a narrative quickly taking hold amongst anti-trans groups and individuals that Parker abandoned her event because of violence from our community.

— Auckland Pride (@AucklandPride) March 25, 2023

The group Tweeted: “There is a narrative quickly taking hold amongst anti-trans groups and individuals that Parker abandoned her event because of violence from our community.

“We reject this narrative. We are of the firm belief that the demonstration of unity, celebration, and acceptance alongside joyous music, chanting, and noise of 5,000 supporters was too loud to overcome and the reason for her departure – and not the actions of any one individual.”

NZ First leader Winston Peters said violence and cancel culture did not represent “the majority of New Zealanders who want an open and free Western democracy that values freedom of speech”.

Irony of ‘disgrace’
He tweeted: “Whether you agree with her views or not, the irony of the disgraceful situation that occurred at the Posie Parker event, is that violence, hatred, and intimidation is coming from the very group who claim to be the ones standing up for inclusivity and freedoms.”

While Parker’s planned rally in Wellington today is off, groups opposing her views still plan to turn out, with the city’s annual CubaDupa festival also taking place today.

Police say they will be out in central Wellington to monitor and respond to any problems.

Parker arrived at the Albert Park event yesterday morning to speak with supporters at a rally.

Her presence and comments infuriated rights advocates, and the reception she received in Auckland yesterday left Parker visibly shaken.

Neo-Nazis in Australia
The controversial British activist’s Melbourne rally days before was attended by neo-Nazis, a fact widely reported in New Zealand before she was allowed into the country by Immigration NZ and Immigration Minister Michael Wood.

Parker was critical of what she said was a lack of police presence at the Auckland event, with her security team struggling to separate her from hostile crowds of protesters.

After being escorted to a police car through the crowd, Parker requested to be driven to the police station, because she feared for her safety.

Media had reported she was seen checking in for an international flight out of Auckland last night.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Women’s participation in decision-making is fundamental to improving gender equality but despite making up half of Fiji’s population, representation at all levels of leadership for women is severely lacking, says an opposition political leader.

The leader of the Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA), Viliame Gavoka, said this in his statement as the international community commemorates International Women’s Day today.

Gavoka said this year’s theme reminded Fijians that bias made it difficult for women to move ahead.

• READ MORE: Other Pacific gender reports

He said knowing that bias existed was not enough, action was needed to level the playing field.

Gavoka said that for far too long, Fiji had continued to “shamelessly lag behind” in protecting and promoting women’s rights and their peace-building expertise.

“A study carried out by the Fiji Women Right’s Movement reveals that 42 percent of Fiji boards or executive committees of for-profit or non-profit organisations or government agencies have no women at all and 26 percent have less than one-third female participation,” Gavoka said.

“The research on gender diversity and equality on boards looked at 192 board members across 38 government-controlled organisations and state-owned enterprises,” he said.

“The purpose of the research was to determine the level of women’s representation in the boards of the 38 entities.”

Lack of diversity
He said the research also identified challenges that limited the participation of women in Fiji’s leadership, such as lack of diversity and opportunity for women elected to preside as board chair.

“According to the research, women hold only 18 percent of board chair positions and sometimes it is the same women appointed as chair of boards in multiple organisations,” he said.

“In many cases, the same people are on multiple boards. This curtails the opportunities for others to join, contribute and gain board experience.

“Ensuring that women are better represented on boards is important to dismantle patriarchal ideals that are heavily entrenched into our society and limit women’s participation in decision-making.

“There is strong evidence that a gender-equal and diverse governance board improves accountability and diversifies the expertise, knowledge and skills available.”

Gavoka said that when SODELPA would be voted into government, they would ensure to “break barriers and accelerate progress”, including:

• setting specific targets and timelines to achieve gender balance in all branches of government and at all levels through temporary special measures such as quotas and appointments; and
• encouraging political parties to nominate equal numbers of women and men as candidates and implement policies and programmes promoting women’s leadership.

“On this year’s International Women’s Day, we should also pause and reflect on the sacrifices of our women in all facets of society despite the challenges they’ve endured to bring change and progress.”

Republished with permission.

Facing angry rioters threatening them with physical attacks, Solomon Islands mainstream and freelance journalists and photographers were confronted with an unsettling reality during last week’s three days of rioting in Honiara.

Local journalists in the country equipped with their cameras and limited protection were working solo on assignments for their newsrooms when the riots happened.

A freelance and multimedia woman journalist, Georgina Kekea tells of the threats to attack her and her news crew by the crowd as they marched down to Vavaya Ridge road, next to City Motel in Central Honiara.

• READ MORE:  Backgrounder: Solomon Islands riots push nation into slippery slide of self-implosion
• Other reports on the Solomon Islands crisis

“They threatened to shoot us with stones and swore obscenities at us. They shouted, ‘Go away with your cameras!’

“Those that knew me personally didn’t say anything. Those that did, I assume they knew of me but do not know me personally; some might not know me at all,” says Kekea, who is president of the Media Association of Solomon Islands (MASI).

“I don’t think any call for respect for journalists at this point would make a difference,” she told Sunday Isles.

“Except that I am surprised that people who spoke highly of culture do not have any respect at all for culture.

‘Women doing our job’
“We are women doing our job just like any other, and if that’s the way Solomon Islands men treat women in general, I am sorry for our country.

“We are lost. Nothing will and can change unless we the people change ourselves. We will not make a difference.”

Kekea pleads for people to simply allow the media to do their job.

“MASI condemned the recent riots that happened and called on the authorities too to respect the work of the media,” she said.

In a media statement from the Pacific Freedom Forum (PFF), chair Bernadette Carreon also urged the authorities to protect local journalists who are delivering crucial news to the public about the protests:

“The media should be allowed to do their job unharmed.

“PFF is urging authorities and protesters to respect the media who are working to inform the public about the unfortunate events taking place in the city.

“Journalists on location were attacked with tear gas, rubber bullets, and stones while protestors advanced towards the Solomon Islands Parliament house.

“While we understand this was done to disperse protesters, said journalists were merely in the line of fire due to the nature of their job as frontliners.

“The assault on members of the media is an assault on democracy.”

Rioters smashed reporter’s phone
Sunday Isles online newspaper multimedia journalist Alex Dadamu also faced harassment and his phone was smashed by rioters while covering the insurrection in and around the Mokolo Building near the Mataniko Bridge, Chinatown.

“I would say they used many hurtful abusive words towards me in the Malaita language and were too aggressive,” he says.

“I was standing in front of Mokolo Building near the Mataniko Bridge taking pictures secretly because the crowd does not want anyone to take pictures and videos. They announced it in the first place before and during the march down to Chinatown.

“At one point, I took a picture and then put my phone back in my pocket. Unfortunately, a member of the crowd saw me take the picture.

“He approached me aggressively, threatening to hit me. By that time, more members of the crowd were starting to join that guy to threaten me for taking the pictures.

“They demanded that I hand over the phone to them. I humbly said, ‘sorry,’ and handed over the phone because already my life was in danger of them beating me up.

“I feared for my safety and I humbly handed over the phone from my pocket and they smashed in on the tarseal road.

“There goes my phone,” says Dadamu.

He says he and a colleague journalist from Sunday Isles (environment reporter John Houanihau) who were covering the unrest on November 24 were also affected by the tear gas targeted at the rioters.

Many lessons learned
When asked if he was wearing press credentials (identification card) issued by Sunday Isles, he says: “I showed them my Sunday Isles media ID card which identified me as a politics and development reporter.”

Dadamu says he learned many lessons from the incident and hopes this will make a difference in the future.

“Lesson learned and I don’t blame them. It is our job as reporters to assess the situation and take note of the dangers which might happen,” he says.

“Additionally, more awareness needs to be than so that people may know and understand more about the role of media in a situation such as these.”

In another related incident, a woman journalist from Island Sun newspaper, Mavis Nishimura Podokolo, says that when covering the scene at the Town Ground area, west of Honiara, demonstrators verbally harassed and chased her, forcing her to get out of the area.

Mavis appealed to the public to respect the work of local media practitioners and journalists in the country — especially in times of crisis.

“The role of journalists is to inform the public and during the ongoing crisis or riot it is pivotal,” she says.

“The work of the journalist is very important in a democracy.”

Mike Tua is a journalist at Sunday Isles. Republished with permission.

British and Indonesian human rights defender Carmel Budiardjo, founder of TAPOL watchdog and the movement’s driving force for many decades, has died peacefully aged 96.

TAPOL said in an announcement that she had died on Saturday and would be greatly missed by an extensive network of people whose lives had been “touched — and sometimes transformed — by her passionate and determined campaigning for human rights, justice and democracy in Indonesia, East Timor, Aceh and West Papua”.

For many, she had been a great mentor as well as a beloved friend, TAPOL said.

• WATCH: Carmel Burdiadjo and the story of TAPOL
• Surviving Indonesia’s Gulag: A Western Woman Tells Her Story
• Carmel Budiardjo: rights defender who shone a light on Papua

TAPOL stands for “tahanan politik” or “political prisoners” in Indonesian.

Budiardjo, a British citizen then living in Indonesia, was imprisoned without trial by Indonesian authorities following former President Suharto’s rise to power in 1965.

An Amnesty International prisoner of conscience, Budiardjo was released after three years’ imprisonment and she returned to the UK.

In 1973, she founded TAPOL to campaign for the release of the tens of thousands of political prisoners following the 1965 atrocities by the Suharto regime and in support of the relatives of the hundreds of thousands who were killed.

Raised awareness of atrocities
Budiardjo was determined to raise international awareness about those atrocities and injustices in which many Western countries, including the UK, were “complicit in their attempts to halt what they saw as the rise of communism”.

Over the next three decades, TAPOL’s work broadened to encompass wider issues of human rights, peace and democracy in Indonesia, including in Aceh, East Timor and the contested Melanesian territory of West Papua.

“Wherever possible, and despite the extreme repression of the New Order regime, we built close relationships and collaboration with the very brave human rights defenders and pro-democracy campaigners there,” said TAPOL.

In 1995, Budiardjo received the Right Livelihood Award, after being nominated by the International Federation for East Timor.

With awareness growing also of the environmental damage being wrought by the regime on nature and local communities, in 1988 Budiardjo helped set up a sister organisation, Down to Earth, to fight for ecological justice.

Later, in 2007, Budiardjo and TAPOL were also founder members of the London Mining Network, established to support communities harmed by London-based mining companies.

“As Indonesia became more democratic during the 2000s, we increasingly turned our attention to the region of West Papua. There, human rights violations have continued, largely out-of-sight and un-discussed within Indonesia as well as internationally,” said TAPOL.

John Rumbiak Award
For TAPOL’s international work on West Papua, Budiardjo also received the John Rumbiak Human Rights Defender Award and was honoured as an “Eldest Daughter of Papua” by leaders of West Papuan civil society in 2011.

TAPOL is still today very much as Budiardjo set it up — a small organisation/network of committed staff, volunteers and collaborators, all aiming for a big impact.

“We remain committed to her ideals of promoting justice and equality across Indonesia, and are deeply grateful for all that she contributed and taught us,” the TAPOL statement said.

“Our thoughts and sincere condolences for this huge, sad loss go to Carmel’s family in particular, but also to all those across the globe who knew and loved her.”

“We take the pain and problems of victims home and it gives us nightmares many times.”

A police woman serving at the Family Sexual Violence Unit (FSVU) of the Papua New Guinea’s Waigani police station in the capital Port Moresby has shared her experience of how officers deal with victims being thrown out of homes, bashed up, marital affairs and other domestic-related issues faced with their partners.

First Constable Mary Louise Avu said many officers took the burden of victims of gender-based violence home and it had affected them mentally, reports the PNG Post-Courier.

• READ MORE: Protect women accused of ‘sorcery’ and punish attackers, watchdog tells PNG

“I am sleeping and in the middle of the night, a woman is calling me and crying over the phone begging for help,” she said.

“I can hear her being beaten up and when I call the support unit to assist us, no one is answering the phone or no vehicle and I don’t sleep. I stay up thinking of what the woman is going through.

“At that point, all we can do is advise the victim to seek safety and wait for the next day for police assistance.

“We try our best to help them. We wipe tears with them, feel their pain and carry the burden with them.

‘It isn’t easy’
“It isn’t an easy job when you see these women seeking help,” she said.

The public was good at giving negative comments about the work of the police but many of them did not know the real people behind the work.

She said there were policemen working hard to keep the community safe for everyone to walk freely — policemen were mentally defeated daily by people they protected.

At least 30 to 40 fresh cases of domestic violence were reported daily with the special unit at police stations around the city.

The Waigani FSVU office was looked after by six officers with eight cases being handled by each officer daily.

This statistics showed that more than 40 cases were registered by victims throughout the suburbs as far as 9-Mile, Erima, and Wildlife leaving their nearest station to come to being Waigani.

First Constable Avu said the victims travelled from outside areas to the station because of the effective results and the work the unit officers did.

‘Many prosecutions made’
“Many cases are handled and prosecutions are made,” she said.

She said despite the issues faced by officers such as the ink running out for the printer to non-availability of vehicles for arrests, they continued to work.

“One of the biggest problems now is the court system. We are preparing all the paper work and prosecuting the perpetrator but many have been released because they plead to the court that they are first time offenders thus the courts are lenient on them,” she said.

Const Avu said the court gave a three-month good behaviour bond which was not enough.

“Those three months should be served in prison. Many perpetrators are let off and continue to harass their partners,” she said.

Republished with permission.

In a nation such as Papua New Guinea where oral storytelling is central to the intergenerational transfer of knowledge and wisdom, playwright Andrew Kuliniasi has taken things to a whole different level by embedding historical accounts and capturing snapshots of a society in transition in a Western art form.

In 2015, Kuliniasi wrote Meisoga, a play based on life of Sine Kepu, the matriarch of her grandmother’s clan. It tells of a young woman forced into leadership by a series of unfortunate events.

His new creation, He Is Victor, is an attempt to capture a moment in time in modern Papua New Guinea society where HIV, TB and discrimination are issues families have to contend with.

• READ MORE: Other My Land, My Country blog features

Andrew Kuliniasi writes:

“He Is Victor follows the story of a young ‘gun for hire’ journalist named Tolilaga (which means a person who always wants to know) as she tries to uncover the mysterious death of her cousin brother Victor.

“The family hasn’t told her anything and has been keeping Tolilaga out of the loop. Meanwhile Tolilaga struggles with her motivations for finding the truth as she needs one big story for her to get a new job and promotion.

“At the closing of Victor’s hauskrai, she finds Victor’s journal that chronicles the moments leading up to his death.

“This story is a contemporary PNG tragedy.

“It deals with very hard hitting issues that a lot of Papua New Guineans are afraid to talk about.

“The main character, Tolilaga, delves into the issues and exploits the narrative. She’s a sensationalist but that doesn’t mean her stories don’t have merit.

“What Tolilaga tries to do is show the truth, the ugly truth. But the truth in PNG, the land where we live, the unspoken is very controversial.

“This play deals with issues of discrimination against people with HIV, tuberculosis and how these diseases are contracted. The play also questions our culture, in conversations we have about sex and sexuality, gender roles and family bonds.

“This show is going to get people talking and I’m expecting a lot of conversation. Is this show controversial? It maybe depending on individual audience members.

“But the one thing I can say is there will be a lot of crying. So if you’re coming to watch the show, bring a box of tissues.

• The play is set for April 9-10 and 15-17 in Port Moresby.

Asia Pacific Report republishes articles from Lae-based Papua New Guinean television journalist Scott Waide’s blog, My Land, My Country, with permission.

A passionate plea by men, women and children has echoed around the Papua New Guinean capital of Port Moresby – that it is time to turn the corner on addressing gender-based violence in the country.

Gatherings, a peaceful march and a vigil were staged in the capital city on Thursday following the death of 19-year-old Jenelyn Kennedy, a mother-of-two, after alleged beatings at home.

Her husband appeared in court on Tuesday charged with wilful murder.

READ MORE: Background and reports on gender-based violence in PNG

• PNG women demand end to domestic violence after death of 19-year-old mother Jenelyn Kennedy

Jean Parkop, wife of National Capital District Governor Powes, said this must be the turning point.

“Let’s not wait until someone else dies. We must demand for change, we must demand for action,” she said.

“As mothers, it is our duty to teach our sons to never hit women. This must not continue. We must stand up now.”

Prime Minister James Marape urged men to walk away from cultural and tribal defences, cycle of violence and to respect women.

‘Women are our partners’
“Women are our partners. They are our partners not just in homes but also in communities and the country as a whole,” he said.

Ironically, the idea of a vigil and march came from men who were so touched by Jenelyn’s death.

“It’s time men stand up for women – our mothers, sisters, wives and daughters,” said Solomon Kantha who floated the idea to his friends.

Kantha said the picture of Jenelyn’s battered body on The National’s front page last Friday just broke his heart.

“I felt that something had to be done. We had to stop these acts of cruelty against women. If not now, when? One day, it just might be our mother, sister, wife or even our daughter,” he said.

Kantha said he could not sleep last Friday because he too had daughters.

“I said let’s walk in memory of late Jenelyn. My friends reached out and said: Let’s do this. We decided to hold a vigil to not only remember her life but the lives of all other women who had died as a result of violence, for those still living in violence around the country.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

SAY NO TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE! SAY NO TO GENDER BASED VIOLENCE, STOP VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN! . WHEN WILL WIFE BASHING STOP? WHEN WILL DOMESTIC VIOLENCE STOP???? . HOW MANY MORE OF OUR SISTERS HAVE TO DIE FOR THE MEN IN THIS COUNTRY TO WAKE UP AND REALIZE THAT THIS IS WRONG? . HOW CAN A MAN BE THIS HEARTLESS? HOW CAN A MAN BE THIS CRUEL, THIS EVIL, THIS INHUMANE TO MURDER THE MOTHER OF HIS CHILDREN, TO COMMIT SUCH A CRIME, TO EVEN TAKE A LIFE? . FATHERS PLEASE RAISE YOUR SONS TO PROTECT THEIR WOMAN AT ALL COSTS. #jenelynkennedy #justiceforjenelynkennedy #saynotodomesticviolence #stopviolenceagainstwomen #pngwomenlivesmatter #protectyourwomen #protectourwomen #pngwomen

A post shared by Stephanie Levouannah Meyu (@stephanie_meyu) on Jun 25, 2020 at 1:24pm PDT

Make voices heard challenge
Kennedy family friend Thomas Opa from the Gulf challenged women to make their voices heard.

He said PNG already had laws to address such violence.

“What we need is for these laws and legislations to be actioned. We demand for action,” he said.

Opa said Jenelyn’s death had given a voice to women.

“Don’t let her death be in vain. Don’t let another young woman die like this. This is the time to demand for action, not just for Jenelyn but for all other women who have died from violence, for all the survivors of violence and for our daughters and their future,” he said.

Rebecca Kuku is a senior journalist with The National.

I write this as a Papua New Guinean and a daughter of this nation.

I believe in the rights of women. I believe that the Constitution of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, the Mama Lo, safeguards the place of women in our nation.

Host Sherry Zhang interviewed the director of the Pacific Media Centre, Professor David Robie, about the tragic life and death of Jenelyn Kennedy from gender violence in Papua New Guinea today on the Southern Cross segment of Radio 95bFM.

Professor Robie discussed the rather horrific image of her lifeless body on the front page of The National newspaper and the ethical dilemma about publishing this photo to bring into focus gender-based violence.

The image was defended by senior journalist Rebecca Kuku who was criticised in social media for taking the stance.

LISTEN: More Southern Cross radio clips on Soundcloud

However, while Professor Robie supported publication of the photo and also published it on the PMC’s Asia Pacific Report, he said the newspaper should have also had a front-page editorial explaining why they ran the picture.

“Jenelyn’s story needed to be told – as a reporter, a woman, a mother, a sister, I failed to be her voice when she was alive and I’d be damned if I would fail her now in her death,” wrote Rebecca Kuku.

“Her voice needs to be heard and that picture was used to ensure her voice was loud and clear and to also awaken the authorities who seem to be sleeping, to open their eyes to the realities of gender-based violence (GBV).”

Jenelyn who eloped with Bosip Kaiwi when she was just 15, bore him two children and was killed at 19.

Then contributing editor of Pacific Media Watch Sri Krishnamurthi discussed the Cook Islands where members of Parliament (MPs) want to go to extraordinary lengths to ban a senior Cook Islands News journalist.

Rashneel Kumar who reported on MPs seeking travel perks was this week awaiting the decision of the Speaker of the House, Niki Rattle, while media groups have protested over the parliamentary move.

Protesters in Papua New Guinea and on social media have launched calls for tougher laws to protect women and girls from gender-based violence and brutality after the torture and death of a 19-year-old mother of two this week.

The death of Jenelyn Kennedy on Tuesday after six days of torture, allegedly by her partner Bosip Kaiwi – who is now in police custody charged over her killing – has shocked the nation.

READ MORE: The harrowing picture that tells a thousand words about tragedy

Papuan New Guinean women “are as good as dead” when they become “victims of DV (domestic violence)”, said one social media writer who penned an open letter in protest to Prime Minister James Marape.

The poster, Melanie Palili, wrote:

“Dear Mr Prime Minister James Marape

“Knowing that the system has failed Jenelyn Kennedy, the latest victim of domestic violence, is enough to know that all PNG women are good as dead if and when they become victims of DV.

“There is an overwhelming feeling of hopelessness right now!!

“How do you expect Papua New Guinean women to live your vision to take back PNG and make it a rich nation when you have a system that is not working effectively to protect lives that are equally important as men, lives that also contribute to nation building.

“It is too late to protect Jenelyn now, but I hope Jenelyn’s case will bother you enough to intervene and give her the justice she deserves and protect lives of every other women who are being abused.

“Mr Prime Minister, the first national goal or directive principle as outlined in our Constitution states that “every person to be dynamically involved in the process of freeing himself or herself from every form of domination or oppression so that each m

an or woman will have the opportunity to develop as a whole person in relationship with others”.

“Create that environment for us. Let every Papua New Guinean woman have a voice in this country!!”

A police statement today denied social media postings and rumours claiming that the suspect in Kennedy’s killing had been released on bail.

“[The suspect] was formally arrested and charged and will appear in court on Monday, 29th June 2020, to ensure his warrant is issued for transfer to CS Bomana.

“We would like to put to rest certain posts being shared on Facebook that the suspect has been granted bail. Police have no jurisdiction to grant bail for such serious cases. Only the courts do.

“Senior officers have physically checked and confirmed that Mr Bosip Kaiwi is in police custody, locked up in a holding cell at Boroko Police Station.”

In an ununusual step, the police also released images of Kaiwi being held in the cells at Port Moresby’s Boroko Police Station.

The death of Jenelyn Kennedy follows a spate of gender-based violence cases in Papua New Guinea, including elite PNG athlete Debbie Kaore, who was brutally assaulted by her partner in front of her children.

Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk

Alistar Kata is uniquely placed to talk about diversity in New Zealand media newsrooms.

Not because she was recipient of double awards at the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) School of Communication Studies annual awards ceremony in 2015 – the Spasifik Magazine Prize and Storyboard Award for Diversity Reporting, as well as the Radio New Zealand International Award for Asia-Pacific Journalism.

But because this Māori (Ngapuhi)-Cook Islander has been up close and personal with the subject.

“The Pacific is a huge part of who we are. We need to keep that alive,” she said when completing her Bachelor of Communication Studies (Honours) at AUT in 2015.

Last month the Tagata Pasifika journalist was back at AUT as master of ceremonies at the communication studies awards where – in the wake of the Christchurch mosque massacre on 15 March 2019 she was asked about diversity in New Zealand’s newsrooms.

“People are waking up to the idea that New Zealand is not black-and-white anymore, New Zealand is now a spectrum of colours – different points of view, different skin colours, different ethnicities and our audience is starting to wake up to that,” she said.

“To accept that brown face on TV, to accept that maybe the chief editor of The New Zealand Herald will be Pacific Island or Indian soon, to accept that their different voices in our community.”

The genesis for this interview was Michael Andrew’s story on the Pacific Media Watch website How journalists can improve diversity in the media.

That article was written just two weeks after the tragic event unfolded in Christchurch.

Sri Krishnamurthi is an experienced journalist and a current Postgraduate Diploma of Communication Studies student in digital media and contributor to Pacific Media Watch.

• Other Pacific Media Watch stories

By Lillian Keneqa in Port Moresby

Papua New Guinea is facing a tuberculosis crisis, says the non-government organisation Businesses for Health (B4H) citing new research.

The country currently ranks 10th globally for rates of TB and has 35,000 new cases every year with 6000 of these in the nation’s capital Port Moresby.

After launching their Women in TB project on Friday, B4H announced that it would host a street festival on March 22 to create more awareness about TB.

“Ending TB means everyone must focus on facts about the size of the problem,” said a B4H spokesperson.

“Thousands die unnecessarily of drug susceptible and drug resistant TB. Drug resistant treatment success rate is less than 50 percent. Last year, there were 2000 reported cases of drug resistant TB in NCD alone.

“Sadly health workers are also at high risk of being infected and sick with TB disease more than any other group.”

Businesses for health PNG believes that it is time to stop people dying unnecessarily of a curable disease.

Lillian Keneqa is an EMTV News reporter and a University of Papua New Guinea journalism graduate. This article is republished with permission.

The role of women in every segment of society is vital and this is slowly been reflected through more women contesting political spaces in Fiji.

This year recorded the highest number of women contesting the country’s general election compared to previous elections – and also the highest number elected.

The new 51-seat Parliament includes 10 women, five in government and five in the opposition.

READ MORE: 2018 Fiji elections – the ‘fake news’ catchphrase of this ballot but beware

The highest polling woman, SODELPA’s Lynda Tabuya – a talented lawyer and former beauty queen described by media as a “breath of fresh air”, being the fifth highest of the successful MPs.

Speaker of Parliament Dr Jiko Luveni says this the success of women is “wonderful news” and she is expected to continue as Speaker.

A total of 56 women from all 6 political parties contested this year hoping to represent women and their issues in political debate.

Amelia Qalituraga, 40, of Banaras Lautoka, is delighted that more women stood for election despite politics being a male-dominated field in this country.

Grassroots support
While casting her vote last Wednesday, she expressed hope that women in Parliament would be able to help out women at grassroots level, especially over the minimum wage rate.

“Working as a cleaner at the rate of $2.70 an hour hasn’t been any easy for me and my family,” she says.

“Na veika ga keimami kerea jiko vei ira na marama era na curu I Palimedi me ra rogoci keimami kei na neimami gagadre,” she added. (The only thing we want from women representatives is to listen to our needs and voices.)

With the rise in sexual assault and rape cases victimising women, Qalituraga hopes that women in Parliament will be able to make a change.

“Na levu ni sexual assault kei na rape sa yaco tu ni kua, au sa vavinavinaka saraga ni na rawa ni rogoci na neimami gagadre.” (With the rise in sexual assault and rape cases against women, I believe that women in political spaces will be able to listen to our concerns now).

Krishneel Vikash Chand, a 21-year-old student at the University of Fiji, says “only a woman will be able to understand the needs of other women and their issues”.

“I think it’s good to have more women in politics because it gives women more empowerment,” he adds.

Better represented
Chand says the idea of women being part of the decision making process would allow women to be better represented and ensure their voices are heard.

Despite the positive response from most people about women competing in political spaces,  some prefer men to address their issues rather than women.

Madhuri Nair, of Field 40, Lautoka, likes the idea of women empowerment but prefers men to address women’s issues.

“I think it’s good that more women are participating in political spaces, however, I want men to solve women’s issues because sometimes women don’t think nicely.”

Despite the mixed responses from people around Lautoka, it is clear women at the grassroots level want their voices heard and issues to be addressed.

• Premila Kumar, Selai Adimaitoga, Veena Bhatnagar, Mereseini Vuniwaqa and Rosy Akbar are included in the 27-member FijiFirst-led government while Social Democratic Liberal Party members Lynda Tabuya, Ro Teimumu Kepa, Salote Radrodro, Adi Litia Qionibaravi and National Federation Party member Lenora Qereqeretabua are included in the 24-member opposition.

Koroi Tadulala is a final-year student journalist at the University of the South Pacific. This article is republished under the content sharing arrangement between USP’s Wansolwara student journalism newspaper and AUT’s Pacific Media Centre.

• Other Fiji election stories

Violence against women is an issue that has troubled Pacific communities for many years both in the islands and in New Zealand.

The United Nations has highlighted the issue of women experiencing violence in the Asia-Pacific region and has tried to improve the quality of life for women in troubled communities.

An estimated 68 percent of girls and women in the Asia-Pacific region are victims of violence, according to figures released by the UN.

READ MORE: Family violence: 525,000 New Zealanders harmed every year

The enormity of the situation in the region has led the UN to start initiatives in Asian and Pacific countries to combat violence against women and in New Zealand the Family and Whānau Violence Legislation Bill is hoped to “break the pattern”.

Ending Violence Against Women Programme (EVAWG) is an initiative that “aims to help women and girls live a life free from violence”. EVAWG is being implemented in nations regarded as high risk in the region with the hope of reducing the numbers of women being harmed.

New Zealand, a developed First World country, has had issues with domestic violence throughout its history, and the government has been raising awareness and providing assistance to NGO groups to help support victims of domestic violence.

Figures show New Zealand has a major problem with girls and women experiencing violence in all age groups.

‘OK to ask for help’
In 2016, between 33 to 39 percent of females experienced some form of violence in their life growing up in New Zealand. Also an estimated 79 percent of harmed women do not report their experience of violence.

The campaign “it is ok to ask for help” has provided a lifeline to victims who are seeking support for their love ones seeking help.

The most common form of violence in New Zealand is physical and sexual violence – women are more likely to be assaulted by an intimate partner than a random stranger, according Associate Professor Janet Fanslow of the University of Auckland as cited by the Women’s Refuge.

It has disappointed advocates in the frontline of the fight against violence aimed towards women that the most likely offender is someone intimately close to the victim.

The impact of domestic violence in New Zealand has a negative impact on society such as physical harm of young girls and women, mental health risks on victims and negative economic impact on the economy.

Hun, a social worker based in South Auckland, believes the issue of domestic violence has reduced slightly over the past few years, and this is thanks to the raising of awareness in the community in South Auckland and through television campaigns.

Some low social economic areas in New Zealand are considered high risk for domestic violence.

Tackling a myth
Māori and Pacific communities in New Zealand are the most likely to suffer and become victims of domestic violence in their homes.

However, it is a myth to believe that violence against girls, women and domestic violence in general is a problem exclusively in low social economic areas, says Hun.

“It is occurring in every level of society in New Zealand.”

The devastation that domestic violence towards women has led to campaigns in New Zealand to reach out to both the victims of violence and the offender.

More financial resources are needed to fully engage the most affected communities in the country, New Zealand ranked in the top 5 in domestic violence in developing countries.

“More work needs to be done to drive the message home,” says Hun.

Promising improvement
Communities that have been targeted with campaigns over the years have shown promising improvement with less and less incidences of domestic violence being an issue.

“Preventing is better than fixing,” says Hun.

The most effective way to deal with domestic violence against women is to teach, inform and raise awareness in young people at an early age that violent behaviour is not acceptable in New Zealand society.

The current Labour-led Coalition government is prioritising family violence and addressing the issue with new legislation. It is at the top of the agenda for the government in the hope of reducing the problem.

Mike Maatulimanu Mohr is a student journalist on the Postgraduate Diploma in Communication Studies (Journalism) reporting on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course at AUT University.

125 years ago today Aotearoa New Zealand became the first country in the world to grant all women the right to vote.

The event was part of an ongoing international movement for women to exit from an inferior position in society and to enjoy equal rights with men.

But why did this global first happen in a small and isolated corner of the South Pacific?

READ MORE: Women’s votes: six amazing facts from around the world

In the late 19th century, Aotearoa/New Zealand was a volatile and rapidly changing contact zone where British settlers confidently introduced systematic colonisation, often at the expense of the indigenous Māori population. Settlers were keen to create a new world society that adapted the best of Britain and left behind behind the negative aspects of the industrial revolution – Britain’s dark satanic mills.

Many supported universal male suffrage and a less rigid class structure, enlightened race relations and humanitarianism that also extended to improving women’s lives. These liberal aspirations towards societal equality contributed to the 1893 women’s suffrage victory.

At the end of the 19th century, feminists in New Zealand had a long list of demands. It included equal pay, prevention of violence against women, economic independence for women, old age pensions and reform of marriage, divorce, health and education – and peace and justice for all.

Widespread support
The women’s suffrage cause captured widespread support and emerged as the uniting right for women’s equality in society. As suffragist Christina Henderson later summed up, 1893 captured “the mental and spiritual uplift” women experienced upon release “from their age-long inferiority complex”.

Two other factors assisted New Zealand’s global first for women: a relatively small size and population and the lack of an entrenched conservative tradition. In Britain, John Stuart Mill presented a first petition for women’s suffrage to the British Parliament in 1866, but it took until wartime 1918 for limited women’s suffrage there.

As a “colonial frontier”, New Zealand had a surplus of men, especially in resource towns. Pragmatically, this placed a premium on women for their part as wives, mothers and moral compasses.

There was a fear of a chaotic frontier full of marauding single men. This colonial context saw conservative men who supported family values supporting suffrage. During the 1880s, depression and its accompanying poverty, sexual licence and drunken disorder further enhanced women’s value as settling maternal figures. Women voters promised a stabilising effect on society.

New Zealand gained much strength from an international feminist movement. Women were riding a first feminist wave that, most often grounded in their biological difference as life givers and carers, cast them as moral citizens.

Local feminists eagerly drew upon and circulated the best knowledge from Britain, America and Europe. When Mary Leavitt, the leader of the US-based Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) visited New Zealand in 1885, her goal was to set up local branches.

This had a direct impact, leading to the country’s first national women’s organisation and providing a platform for women to secure the vote in order to affect their colonial feminist concerns.

Shared egalitarian beliefs
Other places early to grant women’s suffrage shared the presence of liberal and egalitarian beliefs, a surplus of men over women, and less entrenched conservatism.

The four frontier US western mountain states led the way with Wyoming (1869), Utah (1870), Colorado (1893) and Idaho (1895). South Australia (1894) and Western Australia (1899) made the 19th century and, before the first world war, were joined by other western US states, Australia, Finland and Scandinavia.

New Zealand was fortunate to have many effective women leaders. Most prominent among them was Kate Sheppard. In 1887, Sheppard became head of the WCTU’s Christchurch branch and led the campaign for the vote.

The campaign leaders were well organised and hard working. Their tactics were petitions, pamphlets, letters, public talks and lobbying politicians – this was a peaceful era before the suffragette militancy during the early 20th century elsewhere.

The women were persistent and overcame setbacks. It took multiple attempts in parliament before the Electoral Act 1893 was passed. Importantly, the suffragists got public opinion behind the cause. Mass support was demonstrated through petitions between 1891 and 1893, in total garnering 31,872 signatures, amounting to a quarter of Aotearoa’s adult women.

Pragmatically, the women worked in allegiance with men in parliament who could introduce the bills. In particular, veteran conservative Sir John Hall viewed women’s suffrage as a way to a more moral and civil society.

The Suffrage 125 celebratory slogan “whakatū wāhine – women stand up!” captures the intention of continuing progressive and egalitarian traditions. Recognising diverse cultural backgrounds is now important. With hindsight, the feminist movement can be implicated as an agent of colonisation, but it did support votes for Māori women. Meri Te Tai Mangakāhia presented a motion to the newly formed Māori parliament to allow women to vote and sit in it.

New Zealand remains a small country that can experience rapid social and economic change. Evoking its colonial past, however, it retains both a reputation as a tough and masculine place of beer-swilling, rugby-playing blokes and a tradition of staunch, tea drinking, domesticated women.

Dr Katie Pickles is professor of history at the University of Canterbury and current Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi James Cook Research Fellow, University of Canterbury. This article is republished under a Creative Commons licence from The Conversation.

Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark is the new patron for the National Council of Women and she shared her stimulating thoughts and insights at the national conference in Auckland yesterday.

In an interview format with NCW chief executive Dr Gill Greer, Clark talked about violence against women, pay equity, leadership, abortion law reform, and sustainable development aid in the Asia-Pacific region.

Clark is a former administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The conference theme was He Toa Takitini – “strength in diversity”.

The Pacific Media Centre’s Del Abcede, of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), was on hand at Mount Wellington to get some pictures.

• PMC’s Jessica Marshall’s report on the conference

He Toa Takitini - 'strength in diversity'

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With just three months to go until the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders summit in November, the Papua New Guinean government has been buckling down to preparations.

The capital of Port Moresby is going through a series of facelifts ranging from continual road upgrades to clean up campaigns.

While these infrastructure developments are needed, they cannot conceal the social issues currently plaguing Papua New Guineans.

One serious issue is the alarming rate at which violence, more specifically gender-based violence, continues to intensify in Papua New Guinea.

According to the World Health Organisation, two out of three PNG women have experienced violence from an intimate partner.

Where intimate partners are not the perpetrators of violence, Papua New Guinean women are vulnerable to violence particularly in their mobility within communities.

In October 2017, a woman was almost burned to death by a mob who had accused her of practising sorcery.

Rescued from mob
The woman who was later identified as “Elizabeth” from Eastern Highlands was rescued by police officers and taken to a hospital before the mob could do anything else to her.

Stories like that of Elizabeth reiterate that PNG women are more vulnerable than ever and violence is near impossible to escape.

The shows that violence permeates all levels of Papua New Guinean society and a wakeup call is needed for the government to act quickly.

Critics say the level of attention that is being devoted to the APEC leaders summit should also be applied to combatting gender-based violence.

PNG cannot reach development and prosperity until violence against women is dealt with, argued Australian journalist Jo Chandler in a 2014 analysis.

At present, the response to gender-based violence has centred on implementing a 2016 – 2025 National Gender-Based Violence strategy which was officially launched in 2017.

The strategy is intended to be a guide for the PNG government to facilitate the implementation of the legislation, policies and programmes needed to eliminate gender-based violence.

Family protection law
The government has also passed family protection legislation in 2014 to criminalise domestic violence and give more power to protection orders for survivors.

These achievements are a win for gender-based violence survivors as sectorial committees such as the Family and Sexual Violence Action Committee (FSVAC) will be more equipped to support them and their needs.

FSVAC national coordinator Marcia Kalinoe said the National Gender-Based Violence Strategy “consolidates the current work that is ongoing”.

“Fourteen years ago, there was not much sensitisation and gender mainstreaming and specialised services addressing the issue,” she said.

Kailonoe added that the various legislative changes and multisectoral response would be of great assistance to survivors for accessing support services.

Despite the PNG government’s current milestones and the support of partners such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and donors, PNG is ranked as 140 out of 146 countries in the Gender Inequality Index.

The journey to raise more awareness on gender-based violence has not been an easy feat due to “socially and culturally constructed norms”, as outlined by the UNDP.

Constant challenges
In Durrie Bouscaren’s interview with a UNDP-trained “human rights defender” Linda Tule in June, these social and cultural constructs of unequal power relations were highlighted.

Tule talked about how she had counselled three women a week in spite of operating out of her home and on a limited budget.

She even hosts these women if a safehouse has reached its full capacity.

This is the current scenario for survivors of gender-based violence in PNG.

People like Enid Barlong Kantha, who has worked in the gender-based violence field for more than 10 years, knows the ebbs and flows first-hand.

She says that “challenges remain a constant part of the battle” despite the country’s achievements.

“Even with political will, there is still a lack of resources; human resource, financial support and infrastructure. Where there are services, a lack of capacity hinders progress and continues to frustrate many.”

She adds that the lack of coordination among stakeholders and lack of statistics deter better cooperation and collaboration in the national response to gender-based violence.

Stepping into the future
Advocates recognise that ending gender-based violence in PNG, or anywhere else in the world, cannot be done overnight.

The journey will be long and change will be incremental.

Yet, there are corrective measures that can be taken particularly by the PNG government.

For one thing, more emphasis can be placed on decentralising services to not only the outer provinces but also areas that are rural, say advocates.

This compulsive need to upgrade Port Moresby for the world’s eyes has to stop as it is failing the majority of Papua New Guineans and exacerbating unequal gender and power relations.

There is only so much advocacy and awareness that can be funnelled into eliminating gender-based violence.

Services coupled with awareness, however, can eliminate some of the social and cultural constructs at play in PNG.

As Papua New Guinean journalist Scott Waide has said, “superstition thrives where service delivery is poor”.

Pauline Mago-King is a masters student based at Auckland University of Technology and is researching gender-based violence in Papua New Guinea. She compiled this report for the Pacific Media Centre’s Asia-Pacific Journalism Studies course.

• APEC home page for PNG

Fiji might see its first woman prime minister after this year’s general election, predicts New Zealand-based political sociologist Professor Steven Ratuva.

Following in the tracks of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Dr Ratuva believes politics in Fiji is drifting away from the old patriarch-type where men led in the political arena.

“Politics is shifting away from the old patriarch-type to the paradigm-shifting women who have been able to break through the glass ceiling like Jacinda Ardern,” he said.

Dr Ratuva said for Fiji’s upcoming general election, women such as National Federation Party’s Lenora Qereqeretabua, Social Democratic Liberal Party’s Lynda Tabuya and Tanya Waqanika, were strong provisional candidates.

“They are all young, ambitious and smart and they represent the new generation of women politicians who will no doubt become dominant voices in Fijian politics.

He said the three women in particular had become dominant voices in the country.

“Interestingly, Lynda Tabuya, Lenora Qereqeretabua and Tanya Waqanika are all from Kadavu Island where I also come from and they bring with them the critical and intelligent voices from the south of Fiji, which is still one of the least developed parts of the country in terms of infrastructure such as roads.”

Dr Ratuva said the lead-up to the polls would be interesting with many parties yet to announce their women candidates.

‘Anything possible’
Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre co-ordinator Shamima Ali said with the shift in the ideologies of the public, anything in Fijian politics was possible, including the election of a woman PM.

Ali said she’d love to see a woman taking charge of the country.

She believes the country needs to get away from its traditional thinking and support women candidates who think outside the box and address pressing issues.

Ali said Fijians needed to look at things realistically, and support and young intelligent women to garner for a seat in Parliament.

• More Fiji stories

Dozens of women held a rally at the Zero Kilometre point in Indonesia’s Central Java city of Yogyakarta to commemorate International Women’s Day yesterday.

Taking up the spirit of feminism, the women, who came from a number of different groups, took up issues related to gender equality in Indonesia.

Action coordinator Adinda Aurellia said that Indonesian women hope that through the commemoration of IWD they could demand the rights that they should be afforded.

“We are voicing many demands at this year’s event in the framework of commemorating International Women’s Day, because there are in fact still many regulations in force that repress women,” said Aurellia.

The many cases of violence that still occur against women was also one of the topics taken up at the action.

This is bearing in mind that violence against women is an issue that to this day is still widespread because of the prevalent stereotypes about women in society that still see them as weak.

Through the rally on Thursday, the protesters hope that gender equality can truly be realised in Indonesia and that discriminative behaviour against women will no longer occur.

Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service. The original title of the article was “Peringati ‘International Womens Day’, Puluhan Perempuan Gelar Aksi di Titik Nol Kilometer Yogya”.

• More Indonesian articles
• International Women’s Day in Auckland

Indonesia is set to lose its first and only female constitutional justice, whose term is up next year, potentially dealing a blow to women’s rights in a country where they’re being challenged in the face of growing religious conservatism.

Maria Farida Indrati will end her second and final term in about eight months, leaving the nine-member board of justices entirely male on one of the two highest courts in the country — where cases on discrimination, domestic violence, early-age marriage and female political participation continually arise.

The constitutional court differs from the supreme court, where the top judges are all male and which determines final appeal in legal matters not deemed to be constitutional.

“The point of view I bring to the table is different from what my male colleagues present,” the 68-year-old judge said in an interview.

It’s not a certainty that Indrati’s replacement, who likely will be chosen by President Joko Widodo from a list of three candidates picked by a committee, will be male.

While her successor won’t be known for several months or even until after her departure, Indrati said there are several qualified women to consider. She herself was chosen by former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in 2008 after decades of lecturing in law at the University of Indonesia and assisting lawmakers in drafting legislation.

In Indonesia, female law students prefer a career outside the courtroom rather than in it because “women don’t like to be seen as argumentative or to debate,” said Indrati, who plans to return to teaching full time when her term finishes. Quotas aren’t the solution to increasing women’s participation in public life, including on the bench, she said.

‘Be unafraid’
“It is important that women take this role and be unafraid to take this role,” said the judge, who suffered from polio as a child and walks with a limp.

Although when she was young she aspired to be a piano teacher, Indrati listened to the advice of her father, a journalist and former teacher who had wanted to complete his unfinished law degree.

He encouraged his daughter to study to become a law professor instead, according to her official biography.

When the constitutional court in 2015 declined a judicial review to raise the decades-old minimum legal marital age for women from currently 16 years old to 18, Indrati was the only justice with a dissenting opinion.

Raising the marriage age to 18 would allow girls more of a chance to secure their futures, Indrati said. The challenge was brought by a group promoting women’s health. Activists are again appealing, seeking to have the case heard again.

Last week, Indrati cast a decisive vote in the court’s decision rejecting by 5-4 a petition by conservative academics seeking to deem extramarital and gay sex as crimes punishable by prison terms.

She has also ruled in favour of other gender and minority-related cases such as pornography and blasphemy.

More difficulties
“It’s not always the case where the existence of a female justice means the law will take the side of women,” said Indri Suparno, a commissioner at the National Commission on Violence Against Women. “But the absence will give more difficulties to women to become more progressive.”

Southeast Asia’s biggest economy is considered a model of moderate Islam.

The president, known as Jokowi, has put more women into senior roles compared with other Muslim-majority countries — a record nine of 34 cabinet ministers, the most among the world’s most populous countries.

High profile officials include Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi — a first in the country’s history — and Maritime and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti. Rosmaya Hadi became Bank Indonesia’s only female deputy governor this year.

The country also imposes gender quotas for political party candidates put forward for public office.

In 2016, Jokowi launched the first nationwide survey on violence against women and children. However, he’s been silent on calls from human rights groups to end virginity tests for women applying to the military and the police.

Polygamy app
Worries over women’s rights have increased as attempts to hamper equality have been made more openly. A Tinder-like app, AyoPoligami, or Let’s Do Polygamy, and a seminar called “The Quickest Way of Getting Four Wives” have sparked controversy.

Indonesia allows Muslim men to take up to four wives if granted by a court and approved by the first wife.

Some 26 out of 153 countries have women as chief justices, or 17 percent, according to a World Bank report in 2016 called “Women, Business and The Law.”

Outside court
It’s possible that the challenge to the law legalising the age of marriage at 16 may be heard again while Indrati is still on the bench.

Campaigners for women’s rights say that women who marry young will miss out on what’s being called a demographic bonus by 2030 — when the numbers of working-age people are greater than the numbers of elderly — by not being able to further their educations and embark on careers.

The government wants to improve its professional workforce, but allowing women to marry at 16 means they likely will have to stay home and raise families instead of being able to participate, said Zumrotin Susilo, chairwoman of the Women’s Health Foundation, who was involved in the first appeal of the marriage law.

A Central Statistics Agency census in 2010 found 6.7 million out of 78 million women age 15 to 64 hold a bachelor’s degree, or 8.5 percent. About 500,000 women have postgraduate degrees.

“Women have to fight for the presence of female justices and build strong communications and perspective at the constitutional court,” said Suparno of the women commission.

The Jakarta Post

The final autopsy report on Post-Courier journalist Rosalyn Albaniel Evara, handed to the Papua New Guinean Coroner’s Court last week, has an “undetermined death” finding.

Chief Pathologist Dr Seth Fose conducted the full autopsy and compiled the report, saying the cause of death was undetermined due to embalming, which had restricted the evidence at the time of autopsy, despite there being a reported history of domestic or physical violence.

While police investigations continue, Coroner Mekeo Gauli, said the journalist’s death earlier this month would not be taken lightly, as there was a huge public outcry for justice.

READ MORE: PNG prime minister O’Neill condemns violence against women, reports Pacific Media Watch

Evara died on 15 October 2017 at her company residence in the Port Moresby suburb of Boroko after she had complained of severe headaches.

The report of her death and the circumstances surrounding it received widespread calls for further investigations when her aunt, Mary Albaniel, revealed disturbing images of her bruised body during her funeral.

The pictures, according to Albaniel, were taken a day after her death, before the deceased’s body was taken to the funeral home.

The body then underwent embalming, the process of preserving the human flesh after death to delay decomposition.

Common sense
Medical practitioners say it is common sense that the autopsy must take place before the embalming.

This is the basis for Dr Fose’s medical opinion. He stated that based upon the autopsy of tissue microscopy analysis and police report to the coroner, a cause of death could be determined.

Adding that the contributing factor in limiting identification and interpretation of evidence of injuries, trauma, and natural disease was embalming artefacts and changes present at time of autopsy in spite of the history of domestic or physical assault.

However, as the funeral pictures revealed, the issue has not been taken lightly.

Coroner Gauli said that because of the keen public interest in this case, the matter will not be taken lightly.

He told EMTV that in a situation where nobody is charged, it would be up to him to call an inquest for all involved parties to come forward and give evidence before the National Court.

Public outcry
When the police concluded their investigations, the death would go before the coroner to give his decision.

Detective Chief Sergeant Ulagis Mantu of the police Homicide Division said investigations were still ongoing because of public outcry.

He said that while the coroner himself will give his opinion on the matter of the final report, he was calling on Rosalyn Evara’s family to come forward and give him their statements.

Staycey Yalois is an EMTV News journalist. Asia Pacific Report republishes EMTV News reports with permission.

• Pacific Media Watch report on PNG sorcery-related torture
• Police await autopsy report
• More PNG stories

It is important that women and girls remain in the centre of climate solutions.

These were the words of Fiji’s Minister of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Mereseini Vuniwaqa during the Gender Day event at COP23 in Bonn, Germany, this week.

She said it was important to have specific objectives for women in any economic or investment programme responding to climate change whether it involved mitigation, adaptation or resilience.

“If we understand the special place women have in our communities and act accordingly we would create strong programmes, have more effective responses, build better and resilient communities”, she said.

She added that climate change was harsh for women largely because women were over-represented among the world and were exposed to these dangers.

“Women typically are critical to keeping communities together, they care for the children, and they maintain traditions and give stability to villages”, she said

Vuniwaqa said talanoa dialogue on the topic of economic case for gender responsive climate action would highlight the compelling economic reasons why governments were seeking and investors were funding climate policy.

Highlighting gender
It would also highlight actions that had gender as a core element.

Vuniwaqa reminded delegates that they needed to put women and girls at the centre of all climate efforts in order to succeed.

The Fijian Presidency at COP23 has emphasised the importance of equitable involvement of women in sustainable development and the implementation of climate policy, including the Gender Action Plan.

The Gender Action Plan had been finalised to recognise the role of women in climate action.

Deputy Prime Minister of Samoa, Flame Mata’fa, said that full participation and mainstreaming of gender issues was important and it was a step the Samoa government had taken.

“It is important to emphasise the traditional roles and functions women in the Pacific play so that people come to a common understanding and objectives,” she said.

Mereoni Mili is a student journalist on Wansolwara newspaper at the University of the South Pacific. She won a scholarship to attend COP23.

• More COP23 stories

In the early hours of October 23, 2017, a woman in her late 40s was dragged out of her home by a mob who accused her of practising sorcery.

Until then, she had lived much like them – in a tiny rented shack in a settlement in Lae City at the edge of the Bumbu River.

The men carried what the landlord later described as a bamboo, used for witch hunting. According to them, the bamboo tells them where a sorcerer is.

READ MORE: Police rescue woman accused of sorcery

Police were alerted and came just in time to rescue the woman we later came to know as “Elizabeth” from the Eastern Highlands. They fired shots, dispersed the crowd and took the woman to hospital.

Her neighbour, someone who shared meals with her, was initially confused when they dragged her into her yard.

“They were going to burn her in front of my house,” she said. She continued her tale as I listened. She told them that she could be innocent. Her closest neighbor became her enemy after a few unfounded accusations.

She went on to justify why the accusations were correct.

Neighbour turned enemy
“She took my baby the other time. I think she ate her heart. I don’t know,” she said.

Her closest neighbour was now her enemy.

As I stood on the banks of the Bumbu river listening to the men and women talk about the sanguma meri I was going to interject, to try to make them see reason. But I held back.

This was not something you explain and reason to people who have grown up in a belief system that has never been challenged since childhood.

How do you do it?

From the outside, we see the obvious: Brutal violence against women. We see the mob mentality and the abuse. What do they see? A sorcerer who is a threat to society and life itself.

We are on two separate wavelengths. We are not connecting. Police can arrest 100 people, or a whole village. But the idea remains. You have to kill the idea with another.

‘Gruesome’ Madang case
In Madang in 2014, seven people including two children were killed in a raid on their village. The attackers were searching for sorcerers “responsible for a number of deaths” in the neighbouring village.

Gruesome pictures of hacked bodies were obtained by police. Later, 100 men and boys as young as 10 were arrested and taken to the Madang police station for questioning.

Each person had a sense that justice had been served, that they all did the right thing.

On the banks of the Bumbu River, what struck me was that most of the accusers were people younger than me – in their 20s and 30s. These are people you assume would be forward thinking and educated enough to not connect three unrelated deaths to a random woman in their community.

Maybe those who died perished after drinking water from the contaminated river. Maybe they died from multidrug resistant TB. But how would they know?

Their world is not one where bacteria and viruses live. They live in a world where people just do not die suddenly from heart attacks or suffer from depression or mental illness. There has to be a reason for the death and usually someone is to blame.

I was personally angered and disgusted that we have allowed our country to come to this state.

Failed education system
We are partly reaping the results of a failed education system imposed on our communities in 1995. An education system that took grade eight and ten dropouts and made them elementary school teachers in a few weeks.

In the Sandaun province, the Catholic Education Service struggled to implement government policy which demanded that the person with the highest education level in the village (which consultants assumed was grade 12), be trained as an elementary school teacher.

In Oksapmin, where I spent weeks with a research team talking to teachers and members of the community, that government directive was hard to implement if the “most educated” had completed grade eight a few years ago.

Over 20 years PNG sacrificed quality for quantity to meet UN goals of universal primary education. It looked good politically when we reported on the number of kids now able to attend school. But it was a double-edged sword.

We created generations of Papua New Guineans over two decades who could not even read after third grade. We chucked out critical thinking and opted to have our kids parrot whatever the teacher said and did according to the syllabus provided by the education department.

The evidence of the results are all around us — in the primary schools, in the high schools and in the universities.

Then our very own in the government system stole money meant to go to the health and education of our kids. Over the years, we saw education funding stolen through incomplete projects and medicine from area medical stores sold to private clinics while public medical facilities suffered.

The Public Accounts Committee hearings exposed so much of the rot. But few of the corrupt got the the pain they deserved.

Education ‘a burden’
A friend of mine, an academic, told of how students just want to get university life over and done with so they could “get jobs and work for money.” She said education has become a burden for those poorly educated in primary school and high school. University is no longer a fun learning experience.

The accusers of the woman are from a generation that came from the broken education system.

Their families are unable to access medical care because the health system is so heavily burdened and still too expensive for them. Every death is blamed on sorcery. Every illness can be blamed on some random old woman living near them.

In Pindiu, Morobe Province where I travelled with a provincial government team, the superstition is so deeply rooted. How can they trust modern medicine when they do not have access to it?

A village birth attendant assists nearly every woman who gives birth. If a child is born with a deformity, it is because of sorcery.

Superstition thrives where service delivery is poor.

Scott Waide is EMTV’s Lae bureau chief and runs the blog My Land, My Country. This article was republished with permission by Pacific Media Watch.

An unprecedented level of mismanagement of Papua New Guinea’s affairs since 2012 has caused serious health issues, including widespread suffering and preventable deaths, reports Loop PNG.

The opposition’s Shadow Minister for Health and HIV/AIDS, Joseph Yopyyopy, has called for swift and appropriate government action to prevent further deterioration of PNG’s most basic and essential health services.

He warned of “catastrophic consequences” resulting from government inaction while noting that the PNC-led government drastically cut health spending for the past three years, including 2017.

Yopyyopy cited most recent instances, including:

• Laloki Psychiatric Hospital in Central Province being on the verge of closure with patients likely to be sent back home to their families due to shortage of medical drugs at the hospital. (Director of Medical Services at the hospital Dr Ludwig Nanawar revealed this as the institution marked World Mental Health Day on Oct 10);
• Health workers in Manus Province have been without such medicine for more than a month;
• Medicines running out PNG-wide with health facilities lacking essential equipment and in a state of disrepair;
• Health workers not being paid properly with doctors and health workers threatening stop work; and
• Recent media reports of a story from Abau district where a ward councillor claimed more than 20 people had died in the past two years due to medicine shortage.(People had to be taken to Port Moresby for treatment while some died along the way).

Other unreported cases are indicators of very serious system failure, the shadow minister said.

Yopyyopy noted that from the 2015 to 2017 budget, health funding was cut by 40 percent from K1.7 billion to K1.2 billion.

He also warned of further planned cuts of up to 30 percent over the next five years (to about K850 million).

Yopyyopy cited some “shocking” statistics about PNG’s state of health, including:

• In 2016, health cuts hurt many people, but fortunately the impact was softened by external health funding which may not be available;
• According to latest reports, PNG’s tuberculosis (TB) crisis is yet to be brought under control;
• ChildFund Australia estimates that up to 9000 PNG citizens died from TB in the past three years – one out of four are children);
• On PNG’s maternal and child mortality, a government decision in late 2016 to pay for women to give birth in a clinic or hospital was in fact an “admission of defeat”;
• Health experts have explicitly expressed that the health funding cuts have destroyed people in rural and remote areas where the need is urgent; and
• Up to 1500 women die in childbirth each year, and about 45 babies out of every 1000 die.

The UN estimates that about 12,000 children under five die each year, reports Loop PNG.

Also, a recent Asia Development Bank (ADB) report shows that PNG has some of the worst health indicators in the Asia-Pacific region:

• The prevalence of stunting among children under the age of five is 49.5 percent, ranking 29th out of 30 countries with information;
• The prevalence of malnutrition (wasting) among children under five is 14.3 percent, the highest rate for 30 countries;
• The maternal mortality ratio per 100,000 live births is 215, the equal third highest of 40 countries;
• The under-five mortality rate per 1000 live births is 57, the fourth highest of 43 countries;
• The number of new HIV aids infections in 2015 is 0.36 per 1000 of the uninfected population – the highest of 21 countries;
• The TB incidence per 100,000 people is 432, the second highest of 44 countries; and
• The incidence of malaria per 1000 people is 185, nearly double the next highest incidence.

Yopyyopy said facts speak volumes and it is incumbent on the government to stop painting a false picture when in fact, there are very serious underlying health issues affecting PNG.

“The government is not only duty bound, but morally obliged to put the health issues of PNG citizens above all else,” he added.

They demonstrated in Arawa in central Bougainville and blockaded the route to the derelict Panguna copper mine late last week in a bid to prevent the signing of a memorandum of agreement between the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) and Bougainville Copper Limited, which has disputed ownership of the mine.

The women also succeeded in getting a court injunction against the mine agreement in the National Court in Port Moresby on Friday afternoon.

Llane Munau was there to capture the women’s protest on camera.

• Full story, video

'Women own the land'

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With just one female MP in a house of 50 MPs in Honiara, there is a broad agreement that something most be done to increase female representation.

Osifelo looks at the politics of the proposed 10 reserved parliamentary seats for women and discusses the issues facing the next generation of leaders.

• Radio Pasifik’s Facebook page
• Wansolwara News

Pacific — and global — feminists are facing challenging times this week in New York with efforts to squeeze out NGO access to United Nations negotiations.

“Pacific feminists and women led groups are pressing for a CSW61 Agreed Outcome document that shows governments showing courage to change the inequalities within and between states, examining and addressing sustainable consumption and production patterns, and envisioning a changing world of work for women that is not toward concentration of wealth and corporate power that prevents governments from investing in public services and social protection necessary for women’s economic rights, but rather toward a just and equitable future for all, including women and girls,” says Noelene Nabulivou, political adviser of DIVA for Equality in the final days of the 61st session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW61) here in New York.

But the shrinking spaces for women’s human rights are glaringly obvious.

This year’s CSW has seen attacks on NGO access to the consulting process as the negotiations come to a close today.

According to the NGO CSW Committee as well as We Rise Coalition partners outside the negotiations on Wednesday, UN Security staff removed NGOs from the building after 6pm while negotiations continued late into the night.

CSW Agreed Conclusion negotiations were moved to the ECOSOC Chamber and Trusteeship Council Chamber twice this week. These meeting rooms are on the second floor which are off-limits to NGOs.

This has severely restricted NGO/government informal discussions, hampering their ability to support the progress of the negotiations.

Gains at risk
This is putting at risk the gains we have made for women’s rights, as Nabulivou explains:
“We see more governments making links between women’s work and climate change, and we now want to see language on implementation; and on what components are needed for just and equitable transitions to low carbon economies.

“We also are concerned for language to help address structural issues such as the grossly imbalanced global economic and financial system; and a growing automation of work impacting on women already at the bottom of deeply unequal global supply chains.”

Caroline Lambert of International Women’s Development Agency has raised issues of universal human rights, and inclusion of all women as central to leaving no-one behind:
“For too long, the CSW has failed to recognise the human rights associated with sexual orientation and gender identity.

“It’s time for the CSW to uphold these critical human rights.”

She added: “The indivisibility of human rights, particularly the vital intersection of labour rights with women’s economic empowerment, must be a strong part of the Agreed Conclusions. This text must place the ILO as a central pillar of the outcomes.”

In this global political climate, feminist networks and women human rights defenders, says Nabulivou, hope for a text that better responds to multiple forms of misogyny and patriarchal behaviour, authoritarianism, conservatism and violence that are being used to try to restrict women’s bodily autonomy, movement, sexuality and decision-making over their lives:
“It is important that the CSW61 Agreed Outcomes reflect a strong universal human rights framework.”

Pressing issues
Feminists across the world now look to the UN Secretary-General, UN Women and all member states to ensure that the remainder of the negotiations are open to civil society engagement, and that the agreed conclusions respond to the most pressing issues facing women’s human rights.

It is after all part of the critical legacy of collaboration between member states and civil society at the Commission on the Status of Women which have delivered many advances for women’s human rights, from the development of the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women and its Optional Protocol; to the creation of the first International Year of Women as well as the adoption of the first Security Council Resolution on Women, Peace and Security.

Sharon Bhagwan Rolls of femLINKpacific is at the consultations as a representative of We Rise Coalition, led by four feminist organisations:

• Diverse Voices and Action for Equality (DiVA)
• femLINKpacific (femLINK)
• Fiji Women’s Rights Movement (FWRM)
• International Women’s Development Agency (IWDA)

The director of Va’aomanū Pasifika at Victoria University in Wellington, Dr Teresia Teaiwa, has died following a short illness.

She was described in a statement by Victoria University today as a friend, colleague, renowned scholar and poet, and a generous and warm personality of the academic community.

Dr Teaiwa died yesterday in close company of friends and family after a short battle with cancer.

Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Pasifika) Luamanuvao Winnie Laban said the loss would be felt widely among the Pasifika community in New Zealand, the Pacific region and elsewhere around the world.

“She was a wonderful Pacific woman and leader who was a role model for all Pacific people. She was hugely committed and passionate about people and social justice in the Pacific, and she will be missed dearly.”

Dr Teaiwa was internationally known for her ground-breaking work in Pacific studies.

Her research interests in this area embraced her artistic and political nature, and included contemporary issues in Fiji, feminism and women’s activism in the Pacific, contemporary Pacific culture and arts, and pedagogy in Pacific Studies.

Marsden Fast Start
In 2007, she was awarded a Marsden Fast Start research grant for her oral history and book project on Fijian women soldiers.

In 1996, Dr Teaiwa turned down a job with Greenpeace to take up her first lecturer position at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji.

During this time, Dr Teaiwa enjoyed being part of intellectual communities that stemmed from the university environment such as the Niu Wave Writers’ Collective, the Nuclear-Free and Independent Pacific Movement and the Citizens’ Constitutional Forum.

In 2000, she moved to New Zealand to join Victoria University to teach the world’s first undergraduate major in Pacific studies, of which she was programme director until 2009.

Most recently she was promoted to director of Va’aomanū Pasifika, home to Victoria’s Pacific and Samoan Studies programmes.

Dr Teaiwa’s talents in the classroom were formally recognised in 2015 when she won the Pacific People’s Award for Education, in 2014 when she received the Victoria Teaching Excellence Award and as the first Pasifika woman awarded the Ako Aotearoa Tertiary Teaching Excellence Award.

In 2010, she received the Macaulay Distinguished Lecture Award from the University of Hawai’i.

Outside of her Victoria role, Dr Teaiwa was co-editor of the International Feminist Journal of Politics (2008-2011), and was an editorial board member of the Amerasia Journal and AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples.

‘An inspiration’
Pacific Media Centre director and Asia Pacific Report editor Professor David Robie, a contemporary of Dr Teaiwa at the University of the South Pacific, described her as an extraordinary academic and creative talent and cultural icon, adding she was “an inspiration to Pacific peoples right across the region”.

The Fiji Women’s Rights Movement farewelled Dr Teaiwa with sadness.

“This is a huge loss for Fiji and the Pacific as Dr Teaiwa inspired many as an educator, researcher, friend and colleague,” said FWRM executive director Nalini Singh.

Dr Teaiwa was a trailblazer in research and education, Singh added.

A memorial service will be held for Dr Teaiwa at Victoria University in the coming weeks.

Young Papua New Guinean women and girls must be encouraged to enter into a broad range of careers and be involved in decision-making, says a ward councillor in in Lae.

Carol Yawing, the only woman in the Lae urban local level government, said parents must take the education of girls seriously.

Her comments came days after Papua New Guinea celebrated International Women’s Day with the rest of the world this week.

Her plea also followed the visit of Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who also spoke out in support of better educational opportunities for girls.

By Katharina R. Lestari in Jakarta

More than 1000 Indonesian women took to the streets of Jakarta this week to demand greater respect for women’s rights and gender equality.

The women marched through the city centre at the weekend and converged on the presidential palace to mark International Women’s Day that fell on Wednesday.

“Women’s rights in this country are not recognised, which is seen in the way laws, which should protect us, often neglect us,” march organiser and women’s activist Ririn Sefsani said.

She cited the high maternal death rate among Indonesians as an example.

“Indonesia has an abnormally high maternal death rate when compared with many other countries,” the programme manager for activist group Partnership for Government Reform, said.

Child marriage, a lack of healthcare facilities and poor or non-existent reproductive health education were to blame for many deaths, she said.

Indonesia recorded 359 maternal deaths per 100,000 births in 2012, according the latest government figures, more than triple the rate in 2007, which stood at 102 deaths per 100,000 births.

Child marriage
Child marriage is also a major obstacle to a woman’s right to an education, Sefsani.

According to the Indonesian Statistics Agency, about 340,000 Indonesian girls aged 15-18 get married each year.

Indonesia is ranked 37 on the global child marriage index and is the second highest in Southeast Asia after Cambodia.

Indonesia’s marriage law says the minimum age a woman can get married is 16, but this is often flouted with many 15-year-olds or even younger being married off without any intervention from authorities.

“No more child marriages. No more maternal deaths,” Sefsani told the women protesters, as she called on the government to make sure that people’s rights laid out in the Constitution applies to both men and women.

Women’s rights activist Musdah Mulia called for equality across the board and an end to patriarchal and discriminatory regulations which are a contributing factor behind violence against women.

“There must be no discrimination based on anything including religion,” she said, singling out bylaws discriminating against women.

Discriminatory bylaws
According to the National Commission on Violence against Women says there are more than 400 discriminatory bylaws targeting women across Indonesia.

In Aceh province, which adopts stricter Shariah-based rules and where women are often caned if they break them, one bylaw bans women from straddling motorcycles.

Women should unite to stop all forms of violence, including that done in the name of religion, Mulia said.

Victims of horrifying acts of torture during Martial Law in the Philippines have recounted their painful experiences before Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.

Etta Rosales, former chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) who experienced the atrocities of the dictatorship under Ferdinand Marcos, recounted: “They had a gun and they threatened me to answer the question, otherwise they [would] shoot [me].”

She was also raped, tortured, and went through electric shock and Russian roulette.

Rosales is among the petitioners asking the Supreme Court to stop the burial of the late dictator at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, which President Rodrigo Duterte had allowed supposedly for the country to be able to move on from that period of history 1972-1981.

Another petitioner in one of the cases, Trinidad Herrera, told the Chief Justice about her terrible experience under the dictatorship.

“‘Pinatanggal nila ang aking blusa at ‘nilagay ang linya ng kuryente sa suso ko. Pumasok pa ang kuryente sa katawan ko hanggang di ko na nakayanan,” Herrera tearfully recalled during oral arguments on the petition against a hero’s burial for the late president Ferdinand Marcos.

(They ordered me to remove my blouse and they applied electric shock on my breast. Electricity went through my body until I couldn’t take it anymore.)

“They even put water on the floor so that the electricity would enter my body,” she added in Filipino.

‘Touching me’
Another victim, Fe Mangahas, shared: “They would scare me again by touching me and breathing down my neck and then I felt something like naihi ako (I peed). I figured it was blood because at the time I did not realize I was two months pregnant.”

“When they found out I was pregnant I was released, but I was asked to report weekly about my whereabouts. I had to do this every Saturday for a year,” she added.

Other victims also detailed what they went through when they were captured by uniformed men.

Maria Christina Rodriguez said her captors burned her skin with cigarette. Her fingers were swollen because of bullet-pressing.

Maria Christina Bawagan said her thighs were hit until they looked like rotten vegetables. She was sexually abused, with her captors inserting objects into her vagina and touching her breasts while blindfolded. She said she may never know who exactly tortured her, but she clearly remembered their voice.

Each of these women remembered the exact date they were captured and went through the life-scarring experience.

Sereno asked the petitioners, who are claimants for compensation under Republic Act 10368 or the Human Rights Victims Reparations Act, to speak before the court. (What the gov’t still owes Martial Law victims)

She told them, “The Court is listening.”

Not about the money
During her interpellation of former Akbayan Representative Ibarra Gutierrez III, lawyer for one of the petitioning groups, Sereno asked if the monetary compensation for the victims was not sufficient.

Gutierrez responded: “No, your Honor, because the law explicitly acknowledges to recognize the [victims and their heroism and sacrifices].”

He also said that money is not equivalent to the restoration of dignity of the victims.

The late strongman’s state burial, he said, would “prolong and extend” the suffering of the victims.

Human Rights Victims Claims Board (HRVCB) Chairperson Lina Sarmiento, who was one of the resource persons invited, said that out of over 75,000 claims, they have only finished processing 17,000.

HCRVB can only start distributing the compensation after every case has been settled because the P10 billion funds allotted will be divided according to the intensity of human rights violations experienced by each victim.

Sarmiento said they are hoping to finish the work before May 12, 2018, when their office expires.

Non-repetition
Also appearing as a resource person, CHR Chairperson Chito Gascon said the state has an obligation for “non-repetition” of the trauma they experienced during Martial Law.

“There is a commitment on the part of the state [to] non-repetition, [that] the victims should not be exposed to re-traumatization,” he told Chief Justice Sereno.

Gascon stressed that local and international laws acknowledge reparations as a “positive act that the stake must undertake to [prevent] impunity.”

Patty Pasion writes for Rappler.

• Worse than death: Torture methods during Martial Law
• #NeverAgain: Martial Law stories young people need to hear
• LIVE: SC oral arguments on Marcos burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayan

Justice Richard Chetwynd acquitted the three men accused of intentional assault on Florence Lengkon on Friday, accepting the defence’s submission that they had no case to answer on those specific charges.

The people of Vanuatu, however, have still to answer for their silence.

             >>> Dan McGarry comments on the issue on RA’s Pacific Beat

Judge Chetwynd ruled that there was indisputable evidence that Ms Lengkon was struck once “forcefully” on the head on March 13, and said that if that was the case then it is impossible that all three men could be guilty of landing the blow.

But the police officers didn’t ask some very basic questions during that interview, such as how Worwor knew they were involved, whether he actually saw them strike Lengkon, and if so, which of the three of them actually struck her.

Ultimately, the evidence was ruled inadmissible. The three men charged with the assault on Florence Lengkon had no case to answer, and they were therefore acquitted of this serious charge.

But… Justice Chetwynd paused meaningfully before continuing. He scanned the packed courtroom and stated that the fact that over 50 people could have seen what happened and not one of them stepped forward to identify the culprit is “an indictment” on our society.

Evident ignorance
Anyone who has been following the case is within their rights to criticise the lack of thoroughness shown by the investigating officers. Their evident ignorance of basic interrogation and investigative procedure certainly contributed to the lack of a conviction on the assault charge.

One wonders what their Australian Federal Police (AFP) advisers have been doing this past decade.

The judge had no alternative but to acquit the three accused of assault because there was nothing that conclusively proved that any one of them struck the blow that left Lengkon’s eye bruised and swollen shut. We know that someone hit Florence Lengkon, but we still don’t know who it is.

It is admittedly a difficult thing to confront—even passively—a large group of angry men. Florence found that out yet again when she sat alone in the witness box last Tuesday and gave her testimony. Her bravery should be an example to us all.

As the week wore on, more and more people turned up to show support, but on Tuesday she stood alone.

It’s possible to sympathise with the difficult role the police play when they are required to confront an angry crowd, such as the group that gathered that day in March when tempers flared over events down at the wharf.

But let’s not make any bones about it: It’s a tough job, yes. But that’s the job you choose when you choose to join the police force.

Two-way street
In fairness to the police, though, this is a two-way street. If people showed a little more respect for the uniform, if they showed a little more respect for the law, then maybe these situations wouldn’t be so fraught.

One thing that was certainly missing then, and is still missing today, is a common understanding of the basic principles of justice and the law. It’s all well and good to complain that the law is an artificial and imposed construct that doesn’t match well with Melanesian sensibilities. That’s all true.

But that doesn’t mean it’s without value. The basic principle that each person has the same rights as all the others is a good thing. The principle that nobody is above the law is a belief that this nation cleaved to when the bribery case was unfolding.

And if we accept those two precepts, then we have to accept that every single one of us has a responsibility to act to uphold the law.

Justice Chetwynd had the unenviable task of defending the accused against the inadequacy of their prosecution. He would never have been placed in that position had even one of the more than 50 men who saw what happened actually believed in the law enough to take a stand against brutality.

That is an indictment against our society.

Dan McGarry is editorial director of the Vanuatu Daily Post group.

• Dan McGarry’s original report on the assault
• Vanuatu rights advocate Jenny Ligo blasts failed case
• Vanuatu women again denied justice
• Dan McGarry comments on the issue on Radio Australia’s Pacific Beat

Vanuatu gender and human rights advocate Jenny Ligo has called on the Minister of Justice to “revisit resources” made available to curb violence against women.

Ligo, chairperson of Women Against Crime and Corruption (WACC) and Gender Equity in Parliament, made the call after the Supreme Court on Friday acquitted the three drivers – Glen Kovoi, Ben Koro and Charlie Kasuali – on charges of intentional assault against tourism manager Florence Lengkon.

“I believe Vanuatu is producing far too many reports without implementing them because it seems as if the more reports are produced, the less action is seen to be taken against alleged trouble makers,” she said.

She said the acquittal of the three bus and taxi drivers accused of the assault of Lengkon at the Main Wharf last March 13, confirmed that Vanuatu had many “dishonest individuals”.

Justice Richard Chetwynd acquitted the three men on the grounds that they had no case to answer to because no witness came forward to identify them as the assailants of the victim.

Although three names were recorded in statements provided by two police officers, there was no evidence on how Elton Worwor (president of Port Vila Land Transport Association) knew that the three individuals were involved in the assault.

Ligo said it was sad that more than 50 drivers of the PVLTA were present at the Main Wharf on the day and yet none of them could come forward to identify the person or persons who caused the brutal attack on Lengkon.

Kidnapped from workplace
The victim took the case to court after she was kidnapped from her workplace and driven to the Main Wharf, where she was punched, leaving one of her eyes swollen and closed, and forced to apologise to the drivers for criticising their aggressive behaviour at the wharf on Facebook.

The outspoken North Ambaean leader said what happened indicated that women would continue to be denied their right to justice.

“This is especially true when our leaders often remind us that no one is above the law and justice is for everybody,” she said.

Ligo said a second investigation should be ordered into the assault, and the justice system revisited with a view to making relevant changes where necessary.

“When one woman is denied [her right to] justice, then how many other women are also denied their rights?” she asked.

Ligo said what it “boils down to” was an abuse of women and girls’ human rights.

She said she was not afraid to speak out for the voiceless when the public seemed indifferent to “barbaric criminal acts” against women and girls or were too afraid to speak out against the perpetrators.

Len Garae is a senior journalist with the Vanuatu Daily Post.

• Brave woman tells of beating by drivers – special report by Dan McGarry
• Vanuatu marches in opposition too violence against women
• Dan McGarry’s analysis of the scales of justice

The Indonesian government’s response in the wake of a spate of rape and murder of young women and children this year has been widely welcomed by the public in general, but concerns remain about the existence of a “rape culture” in which many victims are ignored.

The government response is seen as reactive, providing penalties for crimes against women and children, but doing nothing to reduce the incidence of such crimes or providing more guarantees of safety for the most vulnerable groups in society.

After declaring sexual offences against children an “extraordinary crime” on May 10, President Joko Widodo on May 25 signed a government regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) stipulating tougher sanctions which include, as a maximum, the death penalty for perpetrators of sexual assault against children.

The Perppu also introduced the potential for chemical castration and computer chip implantation for convicted child assailants.

“We need extraordinary efforts to address such extraordinary crimes which can threaten and endanger the life and the development of our children,” the president said.

The House of Representatives was scheduled to meet on July 27 to discuss ratification of the Perppu.

The new punishments mostly won praise in the country, where there is strong backing for the death penalty. Activists, however, are unhappy, stating the punishments were a knee-jerk reaction and do not provide solutions to address the real problems.

And while the new regulations raised the bar for offenses involving children, they did little to protect women from sexual violence.

Yuyun’s trauma
The reaction from the government followed a public outcry over the grisly gang rape and murder of a 14-year-old school girl, Yuyun, by 14 youths and men in Rejang Lebong regency, Bengkulu. The dead body of the girl was discovered naked and tied up in a ravine on April 4, two days after her family filed a missing persons report.

Her case received little media attention for weeks and might have become just another case that went unnoticed before feminists began a social media campaign seeking justice, as part of their wider campaign to end violence against women and children in Indonesia.

Other cases immediately caught the public eye, including the gang rape of a 19-year-old student in Manado, North Sulawesi, allegedly involving local police officers, and the death of a two-year-old boy in Bogor, West Java after being sexually abused by his neighbor.

The number of cases that have been reported since the Yuyun case attracted national attention suggests that the media has only now decided that such cases are worth the effort of reporting. There are fears that in the past many cases were simply brushed under the carpet by both the police and the media.

A widespread problem
A UN report released in September 2013 showed that almost a quarter of men in parts of Asia admitted to having committed at least one rape.

Ten thousand men from Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Sri Lanka took part in the survey. Rape was particularly common within relationships, according to the study.

One in 10 men admitted raping a woman who was not their partner.

In Indonesia, 31.9 percent of respondents admitted forcing a woman to have sex. Nearly three-quarters of those who committed rape said they did so for reasons of “sexual entitlement”.

The second most common motivation reported was rape as a form of entertainment, while some used rape as a form of punishment or because the man was angry. Surprisingly, the least common motivation was alcohol.

Indonesia’s National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan) recorded over 320,000 cases of violence against women in 2015, with around 11,000 cases were categorized as domestic violence while 1657 cases were sexual violence.

The total number of cases of violence in 2015 represented a significant increase from 293,220 cases in the previous year – and these are only incidents reported to authorities or the commission.

Dominant culture
Experts say women in Indonesia are often resigned to the dominant cultural perspective on gender violence. Many victims choose not to report cases because of family pressure, and sometimes because communities put the blame on them.

Meanwhile, police often have to release perpetrators of domestic sexual violence at the request of their wives and partners.

Law enforcers also apply an outdated definition of rape requiring evidence such as blood and semen. This and the fact that women are often accused of having invited sexual assault underlines the reality that Indonesia, along with so many other countries in Asia, remains a place where gender equality remains a distant dream.

In its annual report for 2015, Komnas Perempuan reported increasing occurrence of sexual assaults, which dominate cases of violence against women, in recent years. It is widely believed the figure is only the tip of an iceberg as most sexual crimes are unreported due to trauma or limited access to justice.

While the situation can be quickly blamed on weak legal enforcement, little has been done to end the rape culture in the society. In a largely patriarchal nation, women are often taught that they need to avoid getting raped but young men are not told that rape represents a serious crime.

Women are still perceived as property in most parts of the country. A “moral defect”, even when it’s a result of violent behavior, will cause the girl to lose her value and create a disgrace to the family.

Meanwhile, male sexual violence is normal and mostly seen as a reflection of power and masculinity. In the case of sexist jokes and verbal offence, women are told to be grateful for being targeted for such behavior because it is a sign that they are good-looking.

A friendly gesture on the part of a woman can be easily mistaken as a sign of promiscuity.

Compromised safety
The widespread “rape culture” clearly has compromised the safety of women, including in public spaces. A bias toward male sexual domination combined with poor infrastructure and security provide opportunities for sexual offenders to commit such crimes.

Indonesia was ranked the third worst place among G20 countries for women to live, according to a survey released in 2013. Indonesia was ranked behind India and Saudi Arabia, which face similar challenges with problems such as child marriage, sex trafficking, violence and the exploitation of women.

Rape can happen virtually anywhere. Reports of sexual harassment of women who commute to and from work on public transportation occur virtually every other day.

At least three cases of rape and one of rape and murder in public minivans were reported in Greater Jakarta in the period 2011-2014. In November 2015, a young woman was raped and robbed while crossing a pedestrian bridge at Lebak Bulus, near the upscale Pondok Indah area in South Jakarta.

To the public’s outrage, police and then-Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo responded to a case in 2014 by advising women against traveling alone and wearing “revealing clothing” to avoid instigating men’s sexual desire and being raped.

Hera Diani, one of the founders of feminist web-based magazine Magdalene, says that despite the public concern over the Yuyun case, it did not go far enough.

“We might be better than India but we did not see the same level of public outrage that the Indian public expressed after the rape and murder of a medical student in the wake of Yuyun’s case, indicating that something is wrong,” she said.

“A female globetrotter even said that women’s safety level in Jakarta is even more worrying than in Mexico because there, the crimes are concentrated in certain areas. In Jakarta, the violence is widespread, it can happen everywhere.”

Brutal gang rape
Diani was referring to the brutal gang rape of a young Indian woman on a bus in New Delhi in late 2012. The victim was returning home from a movie and had boarded a bus with a male friend on the night of December 16, 2012 when four men, including the bus driver, beat them up and gang-raped her.

The victims were then thrown out of the bus and left to die.

The rape triggered a nationwide protest in the country, known to have an endemic sexual violence problem. A week after the incident, Indian lawmakers passed stricter laws on sexual violence, including a minimum 20-year prison sentence for rape and the death penalty for extreme cases.

Indian lawmakers also expanded the definition of rape to include penetration by objects or any body part. Sexual abuse in all its forms including sexual harassment, stalking and voyeurism was also made illegal. Moreover, fast-track courts were established to speed up trials in sexual assault cases which earlier took years to conclude.

Government response
Women’s rights activists agree that sexual assault and rape are more about domination than a mere sexual impulse. A study on the cause of rape in Asia-Pacific by the UN Development Fund for Women (Unifem) in 2013 found that 73 percent of 13,000 sexual offenders surveyed said sexual entitlement, the belief that men have a right to sex with women regardless of consent, was the main motivation for rape.

The remainder said they committed rape for entertainment, while alcohol, often assumed to be a common trigger for violence, was the least common response. Men who had themselves been victimised – abused, raped or otherwise sexually coerced – were more likely to commit rape than those who were not, the study also found.

The Indonesian government’s refusal to acknowledge the rape culture is reflected in the narrow definition of sexual assault in the Criminal Code (KUHP). The regulation centers on physical abuse and says less about psychological and economic violence.

It left marital rape unaddressed until the ratification of the Domestic Violence Law in 2004.

Despite the narrow definition, the government actually has no shortage of laws criminalising sexual offenders. Apart from the KUHP, it has ratified international conventions on protection of women and children as well as on the handling of human trafficking crimes and the prevention of child marriage, for example.

Approach of law enforcers
Indonesia’s rape culture is demonstrated in problematic law enforcement, which perpetuates the view that the crime occurs because the victim invited it. Gender-biased police officers often make impolite remarks to victims and judges ask irrelevant questions during trials.

Lenient sentences are only one element that sustains the violence and discrimination against women, seen as the second gender.

A victim of sexual assault committed by four officers of the TransJakarta bus services in January 2014 was questioned by the judge about the length of her pants on the day of the incident. She was not offered any legal assistance and was obliged to pay for a medical examination.

The offenders were jailed for only 18 months.

A report in The Jakarta Post in August 2014 made it clear that women aren’t safe in even everyday environments. In a commentary on the Transjakarta case, the country’s patriarchal society was identified as the root of the problem, hindering victims of sexual assaults from obtaining justice.

Members of the legal system often lacked sensitivity, it quoted activists as stating.

Founder of the rape-survivor support group Lentera Indonesia, Wulan Danoekoesoemo, said many rape victims chose not to report their cases to the police because the law itself did not side with the victim.

“Some victims feel hopeless because it’s difficult to process a sexual-assault case. Even if the cases are processed, the sentences for the offenders are too short,” she said.

Deep trauma
Meanwhile the victim suffered deep trauma.

Blaming the woman for “inviting” an assault is not uncommon. Activist Kartika Jahja said in The Jakarta Post report that it is not unusual for judges and defendants’ lawyers to question a victim’s clothes and ethnicity.

Women’s Legal Aid Foundation (LBH APIK) executive Uli Pangaribuan agreed that such stigmatizing was why many rape victims chose to keep quiet.

“The reason why many rape victims in this country choose not to report to the police is because they’re ashamed and they’re afraid that society will put the blame on them,” Pangaribuan said, according to the Post.

People tended to normalise rape if the victim was wearing a mini-skirt or a tight blouse.

Who’s to blame?
Meanwhile, some were inquiring why Yuyun, the 14-year-old rape victim in Bangkulu, was wandering near a desolate plantation by herself, prompting the opinion that she herself might have triggered the crime.

Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Yohana Yembise entered the blame game by criticising the girl’s parents for working and not being available for their children.

The comment from the minister demonstrates that the patriarchal view that women’s place is in the home is shared by many women, despite the reality that women often have to work to help the family survive economically. It also assumes that women do not have a right to a career.

It is obvious that more needs to be done to change the perspective and approach that sides more with the accused during legal proceedings. Heavier sanctions such as chemical castration in the new Perppu will not necessarily be effective in preventing more violence.

Diani of Magdalene said she was cooperating with Komnas Perempuan to capitalise on the current momentum to raise public awareness on the danger of rape culture and improve protection for women and children.

Activists, she said, have pushed the House of Representatives to include the deliberation of the anti-sexual violence bill into its priority program for this year but the process of deliberation is yet to start.

“We are looking for better access to legal and psychological assistance for victims of sexual abuse as well as building law enforcement forces with improved gender awareness,” Diani said.

The tougher sanctions introduced in the new Perppu must not be the end of efforts to stopping violence against women and children, Diani said.

Integrated solutions
There’s no single approach to ending the violence. Measures in the legal process must be supported by a concerted effort to build public awareness to reverse the discriminative mindset, which must include improvement of welfare and national education systems.

“Inclusion of sexual education that introduces the correct concepts on good sexual and reproductive health into school curriculums is necessary to complete the push for stronger law enforcement,” said Diani.

She admitted, however, that advocating for proper sexual education for students would most likely face rejection from certain members of the public, who have grown more religiously conservative and xenophobic despite Indonesia being hailed as one of the most open, democratic societies in the world.

“The public most likely would highlight that advocating sexual education means promoting free sex, which they say is against Islamic teaching and so-called Asian values,” Diani said.

The media, she added, must also play a role in the reform process by adhering to the code of ethics of journalism instead of publishing sensational headlines when reporting cases of sexual assault.

In reporting recent cases of sexual violence, a lot of local newsrooms have projected a clear picture of gender bias in reporting, with the publication of gory details and uncensored pictures of the victims.

Lack of women police
A shortage of women police officers is a part of the problem of the failure of police to properly investigate sexual assaults. The police themselves adopt patriarchal values by applying a “virginity test” for new recruits.

A storm over the practice emerged in 2014, when Nisha Varia, associate women’s rights director at Human Rights Watch, stated that the practice was discriminatory and harmed and humiliated women.

While police insist that the practice is no longer used, sources within the force cited by HRW and other rights organisations insist that it is continuing.

HRW said in November 2014 that the National Police planned an immediate 50 percent increase in the number of policewomen, to 21,000. With a force of about 400,000 police officers, the additional hiring would increase the percentage of women on the force from 3 percent to 5 percent.

It is not clear that the hiring campaign was successful, but even at 5 percent women officers would be spread very thinly through the force. Many police stations would not have female officers, further deterring women from reporting crimes.

A May 2015 report in Time magazine on the virginity test issue quoted the head of the national police legal division, Inspector-General Moechgiyarto, as supporting the tests because they maintained the police force’s moral standards.

“If she (a candidate) turns out to be a prostitute, how could we accept her for the job?” he said.

Unhealthy atmosphere
This approach clearly creates an unhealthy atmosphere for female police recruits, and in general creates difficulty for the victims of sexual assault to have their cases dealt with effectively.

In an article in Australian website The Conversation, Irawati Harsono, a lecturer in criminology at the Police Studies College, said she was appalled when she was told that all women police had been removed from the border with East Timor following the referendum and rebellion against Indonesian rule in 1999.

“The presence of female police officers is crucial in ensuring women and children refugees are protected and that their needs are met. In refugee camps, women and children usually lose out in the fighting over resources such as water and blankets.

“They are also vulnerable to sexual abuse. The decision to withdraw female officers says a lot about how the police organisation regards female officers,” she stated. And generally, she added, “policewomen are considered mere auxiliaries to policemen.”

Calling for empowerment of women police, Harsono stated that while there had been improvement in legislation to protect women and children, this had made very little difference.

“The way a country regards female police officers is crucial in its efforts to protect women against violence in the general population,” she said.

“Since 2007, each police district has established a special women and children protection unit. The attorney general has a focal point for women’s issues. The Supreme Court also has a working group. But despite such legal and structural progress, if the culture within the police corps still discriminates against women, effective protection for women’s rights will fall short.”

Economic impacts
The economic cost, in addition to the physical, psychological and health impacts, is often forgotten in the case of sexual violence. Advancing gender equality and eliminating the endemic violence are therefore becoming more important as Widodo’s government vows to build a sustainable economy and achieve 7 percent growth by the end of its tenure in 2019.

The World Bank in November 2015 estimated that aside from psychological repercussions, gender-based violence has been shown to have dire economic consequences, costing an estimated 3.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) due to lost productivity. The percentage is more than double what most governments spend on education.

“The negative stigmas attached to survivors of sexual violence might make them lose their jobs,” Diani said, agreeing that productivity losses due to sexual abuse might be larger and extended to the next generation as impoverished victims might raise vulnerable families and kids.

In the National Mid-Term Development Plan (RPJMN) for 2015-2019, the government pledges to enhance protection of women and children. It aims to improve prevention of violence through the launching of the National Children Protection Movement, awareness campaigns and the implementation of restorative justice for child convicts.

The measures also include efforts to improve services for victims of violence, which seek better handling of reports, health and social rehabilitation and reintegration, as well as stronger law enforcement with provision of legal assistance.

The RPJMN also outlines plans to upgrade the capacity of agencies working on women and children’s protection through a better legal system, inter-agency coordination and the establishment of an information system related to the crime.

The plan of action, included in the five-year economic development roadmap, signals that the government is aware of the importance of promoting women and children’s protection. The move indicates that the state is heading in the right direction in providing protection for all its citizens, but evidence remains scant that any of these policies have been implemented.

The government needs to encourage society to move toward a culture of preventing the perpetration of rape through a persuasive campaign at all levels, rather than relying on prevention through knee-jerk responses. While the government’s Perrpu looks tough, there is no indication at this stage that it will make women any safer.

In Fiji, the number of reported domestic violence cases has increased. Police say in the first quarter of this year, it registered 951 which is 13 percent more than in the same period last year.

A Fijian women’s group believes the reported abuse is only “the tip of the iceberg”.

Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre co-ordinator Shamima Ali says the higher number of domestic violence reports is a good thing, as more women are choosing to speak out.

SHAMIMA ALI: “The more reporting there will be, the more it can act as a deterrent to potential wife beaters and perpetrators and so on, and it also encourages other women and girls to report when they see higher rates of reporting. So that is the positive side of it.”

However Shamima Ali believes only 15 percent of abused women approach the police. She says even if women want to speak out, they are often pressured to keep quiet.

SHAMIMA ALI: “Domestic violence is seen so much as the norm, and if you look at the domestic survey 58 percent of women said no one should interfere when a husband beats up his wife.”

However, Ali believes more women are reporting abuse because police are better at responding to domestic violence. Police spokesperson Atunaisa Sokomuri says the force has been working with the community to raise awareness and encourage women to report abuse.

ATUNAISA SOKOMURI: “Now the members of public have more confidence in the police department and report on sexual offenders cases and sexual abuse cases.”

Menka Goundan from the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement says she believes Cyclone Winston has caused the recent increase of reports. Goundan says cyclone relief workers encourage women in remote areas to contact police if they are being abused.

MENKA GOUNDAN: “Now there is a lot of NGOs, aid workers, even cluster groupings that are going in to talk to people, which has definitely led to the rise in reported cases.”

Menka Goundan says women are also more likely to report abuse during disasters as the fear of losing a place to stay, which normally deters them from speaking out, has already happened.

MENKA GOUNDAN: “With the displacement they are already insecure and more vulnerable so when these things happen they don’t have to worry about that security aspect because it’s already lost and they are already in a vulnerable state.”

The executive director of Fiji Women’s Rights Movement Tara Chetty says domestic violence usually increases during disasters. However she says it is difficult to tell whether Winston has directly caused the recent spike.

TARA CHETTY: “I think what it points to is the need to really analyse the figures that we come across. To have a look at geographical spread – where are they being reported. So that would give us a better sign of whether it’s in cyclone effected areas or not.”

Tara Chetty says abuse is rife even when there is no emergency.

TARA CHETTY: “This extremely high level of violence against women and girls and gender based violence is just unacceptable. You know, the Pacific is a world leader in gender based violence and that’s just not the kind of world leader that we want to be.”

Tara Chetty believes abuse will only decrease when Fijian culture changes.

Julie Cleaver reported this story for Dateline Pacific while on internship with Radio New Zealand International.

Six of the Auckland participants who attended the UN Commission of the Status of Women held in New York in March have had an opportunity to report back on the discussions that were held on the international stage.

An echoed concern among the participants was the lack of Pacific and indigenous representation at the commission.

Some even feel disappointed with a particular presentation and report by New Zealand’s Ministry for Women at the commission that “named and shamed” Māori and Pacific women.

At the “report back” session held by the Pacific Women’s Watch NZ (PWW), Denise Ewe, area representative for Tāmaki Makaurau and national executive at the Māori Women’s Welfare League (MWWL), said she felt honoured to participate in the commission but was “ashamed” over the ministry’s presentation.

Ewe said singling out these specific ethnicities and attaching them to domestic violence data on a world stage was “sloppy” when there were groups in New Zealand that have concerns around the same issue.

“There was over 4000 women from every country and no other country specifically and deliberately named [the ethnicity].

“That for me was one of the lows I have to say,” said Ewe.

Formal letter
Another participant who is also national president of the Māori Women’s Welfare League, Prue Kapua, said the league was in the process of writing a formal letter about the issue to the ministry and will be meeting with them for a debrief within the next month.

“The issue about that particular report, and how it was used has already been raised, we have discussed that with the minister last year but it seems to find its way back into that forum.”

Kapua said the commission was a huge learning experience where she gained perspectives on the process of negotiating on human right laws.

But she was disappointed with the “invisibility” of indigenous women in the world arena.

PWW board member and former Shakti Community Council employee Sara Daneshvar was also present at the commission and told Pacific Media Watch that in future she would like to see increased Pacific “grassroots” representation.

She said the Pacific was unfamiliar territory on the world stage and urged the New Zealand government to provide assistance for island nations to attend UN conferences and commissions like this one.

“For example, Papua New Guinea was not represented but we know there are plenty of organisations doing work on the ground there, but they barely have the funds to run their services. How are they going to have the funds to go to these conferences?”

Real issues
Daneshvar emphasised the real issues affecting indigenous and Pacific women were not going to be heard unless their voices and perspectives were presented directly by them.

Her message to women in New Zealand is the need to be aware of the resources they can access if their rights are abused.

“A lot of women do not know the threats committed against them are actually [human rights] abuses. All of them need to be aware that they should be treated as equals to men, that is their right as women, and if that is abused they need to know what can they do about it.”

Beverley Turner, international secretary for PWW, said New Zealand had got a reputation of being “this first country for women to vote, but [other world countries] don’t realise all the other issues beneath the surface.

“We would very much like an action plan for women,” Turner said. “This government refuses to have a plan of action for women; categorically refused that recommendation from the Human Rights Council.”

Turner’s message: “You are women, you have the same rights as women anywhere—go for it.”

TJ Aumua is contributing editor of the Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Media Watch freedom project.

The Pacific Islands conjure up images of paradise: white sand beaches, transparent sparkling aquamarine seas, and happy smiling islanders.

But what lies beneath is the unacceptable treatment of women and rampant gender inequality, as the iconic tourist images mask the highest rates in the world of intimate partner sexual and domestic violence against women, ranging from around 68 percent in Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Kiribati to 40 percent in Samoa.

Against this milieu, paradise is surely lost for women and girls in the Pacific.

Gender equality appears to have advanced everywhere, and so, you would think, would attitudes about wife beating. However, according to a new United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) report, Sexual and Reproductive Health of Young People in Asia and the Pacific, this is far from the truth.

The report highlights how in Timor-Leste a staggering 81 percent of teenage girls believe a husband is justified in beating his wife for at least one reason.

The figures were slightly lower for Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Samoa, and Vanuatu, but still speak volumes about how girls perceive their mothers’ status.

In Tonga, faring somewhat better, just over 25 percent of girls think domestic violence is acceptable in some circumstances.

Dreaming a different dream
Aren’t we asking them to dream a different dream, one that allows them lives with dignity, husbands who respect them, and a decent education followed by paid work? Not so, it seems.

Picture how the intergenerational cycle of domestic violence, actual criminal assault against women in the home, is perpetuated.

Teenage girls watch their mothers being beaten by their fathers. The father is the patriarch after all. It is he who must be obeyed. These impressionable young women consider it justifiable, because their mothers do.

They too get beaten when they are grown women, and in turn they teach their own daughters—even if it is only by subliminal socialisation—that it is acceptable too. And so the cycle continues and that’s why those 81 percent of Timorese girls think it’s fine for their fathers to beat their mothers.

This month Dame Meg Taylor, Secretary-General of the Pacific Islands Forum and the first female leader of the regional organisation, reminded us of some of these problems in the Pacific.

In ADB’s Manila headquarters as annual Gender Month distinguished speaker, Dame Meg pointed out that the last 2012 Women’s Economic Opportunity Index, published by the Economist Intelligence Unit, provided a global comparison of women’s economic opportunities including, for the first time, six Pacific countries.

The Pacific ranked very poorly in this index of 128 countries, with most of the six surveyed countries in the bottom 25 per cent. The Solomon Islands and PNG were ranked at 124 and 125, respectively.

Urgency self-evident
“The urgency of dealing with gender-based violence in the Pacific is self-evident,” she said.

It is important to remember that one cannot point to individual successful women to rationalise the advancement of gender equality, as is commonly done in the Pacific.

Gender indexes measure women’s advancement as a group. The success of individual women is laudable, but it is an anomaly, an exception to the rule.

They succeed in spite of the system, not because of it. It is important and appropriate to celebrate them for many reasons, including their importance as role models to girls and young women. But this cannot, and should not, be an overall indicator of gender equality.

For a start we need to question the fundamentals of patriarchy‎ that require fathers to reign supreme. Based on my experience representing hundreds of battered women in court, try counseling and mediation first, but if that does not work then prosecute and seek punishment.

Women should expose their husbands and partners for their criminal acts. This would send an important message to their daughters.

We must raise our daughters and sons differently than we have been. We need to tell them over and over again at home, at school and in the churches, mosques and temples that hitting a woman is a criminal assault, a violation of a woman’s human rights. The same act committed outside the home would be considered a crime. They need to understand that if their father considered their mother his equal, he would not beat her.

Defending themselves
Women have to defend themselves and say enough is enough. Ultimately they have to walk away from marriages in which men refuse to change. These small acts of dignity may turn the tide for their daughters.

All of this reminds me of why I am still a feminist. For Pacific Island women and girls, we need to keep working until paradise is regained.

A lawyer by profession, Imrana Jalal was a commissioner with the Fiji Human Rights Commission. She is the author of the Law for Pacific Women, architect of the Family Law Act 2005, and former chair of the UN Committee on Harmful Practices Against Women. She is a member of the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement, Women Living Under Muslim Law, the Asia-Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development. She is also a commissioner on the International Commission of Jurists, Geneva. This commentary was first published on the Asian Development Blog.

In an outpouring of popular protest, several hundred women, men and children marched in Port Vila and Luganville yesterday to demand an end to violence against women in Vanuatu.

The march was organised in response to an attack earlier this month on tourism industry worker Florence Lengkon, who was kidnapped and assaulted by seven men after she complained on social media about the aggressive behaviour of some bus and taxi drivers at Port Vila’s wharf.

In Port Vila, the protesters marched from the seafront to Parliament House, currently in session, where they met by MPs from government and the Opposition.

At Parliament, Florence Lengkon presented a petition demanding stronger action against gender-based violence to Justice Minister Ronald Warsal.

The protesters in Vila included members of the general public, representatives from NGOs, womens’ groups, government departments and staff from numerous local businesses who were given time off work to attend the march.

Law students from the University of the South Pacific’s Emalus campus also joined in along with local Pacific communities.

The Tongan community’s group was led by a royal visitor, the Hon Alematea, son of Princess Fusipalo.

Late yesterday, Vanuatu’s Parliament passed a motion to adopt Commonwealth parliamentary procedure and allow the petition to be presented.

This is a first for the country – the petition was read out inside Parliament.

Vanuatu women united to end violence

The Pacific nation’s leading rugby organisation, Samoa’s Rugby Union, has hosted its first Samoa Women’s Rugby Conference and has announced it will be making this an annual event.

The conference was held earlier this month to commemorate International Women’s Day on March 8 in the capital Apia. It highlighted the importance of supporting and encouraging the country’s women in rugby.

The SRU’s women’s development officer Toluiva Keneti says the event’s main focus was to address the issue of gender imbalance prevalent in the sport.

“We are looking at using rugby as a tool to break barriers and stereotyping in the community, especially for women playing rugby,” she said.

Senior programme officer for the Ministry of Women Community and Social Development Robert Wong Sin says there are numerous cultural barriers that contribute to the impediment of women’s participation in rugby but he believes things are changing.

“The idea that ‘rugby’s a man’s sport’ or those stereotypes that women are too fragile… those barriers are slowly starting to break down.

“Families are embracing the idea of having their girls participate in more physical sports,” he says.

Room for improvement
Wong Sin says although things are getting better, “there’s still a lot of room for improvement and definitely lots more room for participation”.

The SRU Women’s Rugby Conference took place over the course of two days and brought in 15 female secondary school teachers to partake in workshops to become coaches, referees and sports administrators in their schools.

According to SRU there are currently just over 500 registered female rugby players in Samoa but Keneti says the union lacks female coaches and referees and believes conferences like these will increase female contribution to the sport.

Samoan National Rugby League (NRL) game development manager Gabrielle Apelu is the country’s last remaining pioneer of Samoan women’s rugby and says she understands the challenges of sportswomen best because of her background in rugby but believes Samoa is given a bad rap from New Zealand on issues of gender equality, especially in sport.

“Most Western philosophies that categorise women and barriers to sport never take into consideration cultural values and standards and quantify results in Western terms which are very often misleading and badly interpreted.

“In this day and age there is no stigma. What changes are women’s priorities,” Apelu says.

Chairwoman of the Samoa Women in Sports organisation Nynette Sass says as Samoan women grow up their domestic responsibilities influence their decisions and their focus shifts to their family.

Sports active when young
“Girls are usually active in sports when young, but progress to refrain from sports as they get up to the university level to focus more on studies. By the time they are in the workforce, they’re required to work and prioritise their families and all other obligations ahead of themselves, hence there is no time to do what is deemed at times as frivolous activities.”

United Nations Samoa representative Mele Maualaivao says financial challenges are also a contributing factor to sports lacking female involvement.

“If women’s sports were able to be the great income earner that they are for men, many more young women would be encouraged to play professionally,” Maualaivao says.

Nynette Sass says encouraging women to play rugby also has health benefits for the nation.

“Samoa is waking up to the realisation of the bad effects of a sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy eating of processed food with increasing numbers of people falling prey to Non Communicable Diseases (NCD). Lately the message has really hit home with the increase in cancer deaths.”

According to the World Health Organisation half of all adults in Samoa are at high risk of developing NCDs such as cancer, diabetes and obesity. A report by the Samoan government last year showed that cases of high blood pressure and obesity have almost doubled in the past 10 years.

Domestic violence
Keneti, Maualaivao and Wong Sin are taking their gender balance message beyond rugby and sport. They are also encouraging women to take a stand against domestic violence through their initiatives.

A study carried out by the WHO last year found that from the 1640 women aged between 15 and 49 years surveyed 65 per cent of respondents reported violence that was either physical, emotional or sexual.

According to Wong Sin, initiatives through sport are the most efficient and effective way to strive toward addressing issues like gender equality.

“In sport there should be no discrimination. Sport encourages team building and character development and develops leadership. So we feel having this forum sustained over the next few years will encourage women to take essential positions not only on the field but also in the background and contributing to sports development overall.”

Keneti says initiatives like the SRU conference are educating women to stand up to violence and encouraging women to play alongside men.

This, she says, nurtures a sense of equality, which can build confidence to face any environment and to “never go silent”.

“This is not just about rugby itself, it’s not about a rugby ball, not about how famous rugby can become in Samoa: it is about educating women that it is a game for all,” she says.

Maualaivao believes “it is an exciting time to be a woman in Samoa,” and says she is optimistic about bringing change in attitudes toward women’s issues in Samoa.

“Any time a woman is asked to think of herself as a woman first, it can bring enlightenment to her situation and to her understanding of the challenges she may face.

“Empowerment of women is key to all other aspects of gender equality being addressed.”

Anuja Nadkarni is a journalism graduate from AUT and is completing her Honours degree in Communication Studies. She is currently on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course.

The Vanuatu Daily Post reported that a  “Stop violence against women” parade planned for Port Vila today brought together women from microfinance businesses, NGOs, the formal employment sector, church and women in the informal employment sector.

Together they were presenting petitions to the Minister of Internal Affairs, Alfred Maoh, and the Minister of Justice and Social Welfare, Ronald Warsal, at Vanuatu’s Parliamentary Complex.

The peaceful protest comes after the recent abduction and abuse of local female tourism manager, Florence Lengkon and coincides with the first sitting of the country’s new Parliament.

It was organised by a committee led by the Deputy Lord Mayor, Leimara Malachai and the President of the Women Against Crime and Corruption, Jenny Viregagaru Ligo.

In a statement published by the Daily Post, the commitee said: “We must lift our voices and ask that men listen to our petition and stop violence in Vanuatu. We women have human rights also. We are also born as human beings and we plead that you give us due honour and respect when dealing with us.

“We call on the Vanuatu government to deal with the perpetrators of Florence Leingkone. We also ask the Vanuatu government to investigate the killings at the Tebakor/Seven Star Dark Corner.”

The Stop Violence against Women Organising Committee is concerned with the constant cases of domestic and physical violence against women in Vanuatu.

In spite of the passing of the Family Protection Act 28 of 2008, the brutal killing of innocent victims and the battering of women, spouses and girls in Vanuatu has continued.

According to the Daily Post, Vanuatu acceded to the United Nations’ Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (UNCEDAW) in 1995, but the Pacific nation continues to discover serious cases of domestic and physical violence.

The committee’s petition is asking for the support of international and local audiences.

While the world was busy celebrating Women’s Day on March 8, in Fiji many women from different communities were struggling for their basic needs.

“In my community, I want to see improved infrastructure including proper crossings and bus shelter,” says a woman from Lautoka, Alecy Amua, who is worried about children’s safety.

“I want young people to access the training and support they need,” says Amacy Antonio of Suva, who is concerned about the violence and bullying in the communities that encourages suicide.

The irony is that the voices of these women are unheard and this leads to major issues that women are facing in Fiji.

“Women in Fiji have been recently facing issues related to food security, market economy, health, infrastructural problems — which are long standing — and access to the water,” says Sian Rolls, programme associate media advocacy of the regional feminist media organisation FemLINKPACIFIC.

“Women from significant communities are apathetic to the issues because they haven’t had the opportunity to access to the leadership or communication training or to speak for their family, for the community or for themselves.

“They cannot find a way to reach out to the local government agency.”

Lengthy, tiresome communications
The process of informing the government about the problems is not only lengthy but also tiresome.

For people living in a settlement, they have to take their issues through the advisory council.

Information is then taken to the district level and finally feedback is sent back to the community.

For those living in a village, they need to work through the provincial council.

Both systems still prefer men for communicating about issues.

This means major gender discrimination and ultimately women are excluded from the decision-making process.

However, the Fiji government has shown improvements in some areas.

Women in Parliament
Fiji has the highest number of women in Parliament in the Pacific – 16 percent.

There are also four women in the Fiji cabinet.

But local areas are underprivileged and women from these communities need government attention.

In 2014, the national gender policy was adopted. But such information is not making its way down to the advisory council level or provincial council level — or even to the villages.

Lack of education about the policy at local level means officials need to be reminded to include women in development planning.

In fact, women are facing problems about articulating their issues and fighting against gender discrimination.

Community radio
To give a voice to Fiji women, femLINKPACIFIC launched its own community radio in 2004.

The purpose of the radio was to bridge the gap between young and older women. Young women are keen to learn new technology whereas older women have not been able to present their issues.

The radio is a platform where women can raise their voice together and solve community issues.

FemLINKPACIFIC’S Sian Rolls believes that the more women are invested in, the better off their community is. With the objective of making women self-sufficient, they are willing to create an environment for their voice to be heard.

While FemLINKPACIFIC’s work is not focused on disaster and relief, its Women’s Weather Watch network and campaigns have been reflecting weather patterns. Its advocates say this programme is the only women’s centre information and communication model being used in the Pacific.

“As a leader I want to see myself, first to be a reliable person and well educated. I must work out my time between my family commitments and socialisation,” says Luisa Yalobula.

She is the leader of Bulileka Women’s Group and thinks that tradition, education, sometimes husband, source of income and communications are the barriers for the leadership.

Rolls says: “It is not only about changing the stories, but it is about bringing their voices to the society. Because when a woman shares her story, experiences on a multimedia platform, it makes a lot of difference in people’s mind.”

After Cyclone Winston
Fiji women used to consider themselves secondary to their husband and children. Because of that they are compromising their own health to make sure that their children’s requirements are taken care of, say advocates.

This includes pure water and hygiene issues. Usually dignity packs do not come with the immediate relief supplies, which accelerates women’s hygiene issues.

In Vatani Kaba village, Tailevu, for example, women need to travel a lot to access basic healthcare. Women have to spend almost $200 to get to the nearest main medical centre.

They have to catch a bus to a jetty and then they have to catch a bus for a nearby town and if they have to go to the capital, Suva, then again catch another bus to reach to centre.

Also, women from this village are facing major issues related to pure water. They have one pool in the middle of the village and it is the only source for them to get pure water.

In 2014, the women got vaginal infections for not getting the pure water.

Now far worse
It took 8 months for their recovery but again a dry spell and Cyclone Winston have made things worse for this village.

FemLINKPACIFIC’s programme associate network coordonation Frances Tawake says: “Many families have moved to the mainland because of the poor access to water in Vatani. If this problem is not solved now, no one will be left at the village.”

The government has not taken this issue seriously even though women have been talking about it in their district meetings.

“We will continue to voice our issues about water until it gets fixed. We will not lose hope. Our grandmothers, our mothers have gone through this and now it’s our turn. This water problem should not continue,” says Merewairita Nasiri, 39, from Vatani Kaba, who is determined to solve this issue for her village.

Apart from this, many of the women have lost their homes and now they are facing problems in terms of their shelter.

“Internal displacement is becoming a major issue for the women. Women are forced to move to the urban centre which may lead to the possibility of sexual exploitation. We do have some sexual harassment cases from the evacuation centres.”

Menka Goundan, a research officer from the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement, gave some insights about the women’s condition after Winston cyclone.

“In some cases, because of the economic insecurity, women are forced to provide one meal a day to their families. Also, some of the families are less likely to send their girl child to school,” says Goundan.

Cyclone Winston first struck western Fiji early last month before double backing and devastating the country on February 20 with a death toll of 44. It has been more than a month now since for these women to try to rebuild normal lives again.

Ami Dhabuwala is a postgraduate student journalist at AUT University. She is reporting on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course.

​The Veiqia Project Exhibition is now open at Auckland University of Technology’s St Paul St Gallery Three as a result of the journey of seven women reconnecting with a “sleeping” cultural practice.

The exhibition boasts the artwork of five contemporary artists from Australia and New Zealand that were developed from 12 months of research and museum visits, in the hope of further understanding “Veiqia” – the practice of female tattooing in Fiji.

“The project is about reawakening ourselves as Fijian woman,” says curator Tarisi Sorovi-Vunidilo.

“The exhibition highlights a process each artist took to learn more about Veiqia, an ancient practice that is part of the rite of passage for young girls before they become a woman,” says Sorovi-Vunidilo.

“It reminds us of our role in Fijian society and reaffirms our place in our family.”

Artist Donita Hulmes says she only heard the word Veiqia a year ago.

“What came to me was the question – why don’t we know about this? This project now gives me hope that we can put the practice back into light and give the names back to our great-grandmothers.”

Artist Joana Monolagi says this is not the end for the project.

“This has opened up a lot of our personal life as a Fijian women and who knows where this will take us.”

The Veiqia Project is supported by AUT’s Office of Pacific Advancement.

“Pacific communities across the world have a wealth of Pacific artistic talent,” says Head of Pacific Advancement Walter Fraser. “We are pleased to be a part of helping showcase this diverse talent.”

​The exhibition is at the St Paul Street Gallery Three from March 16-26, and is aligned with the Pacific Arts Association XII International Symposium.

Artists: Margaret Aull, Luisa Tora, Dulcie Stewart, Donita Hulmes, Joana Monolagi.

Curators: Tarisi Sorovi-Vunidilo and Ema Tavola.

When: 16-26 March 2016

Where: St Paul St Gallery Three, AUT, Auckland City

More about The Veiqia Project

The kidnapping and attack on a local Vanuatu female tourism manager, Florence Lengkon, has stirred strong criticism of violence against women in the island nation.

Deputy Prime Minister Joe Natuman, who holds the Tourism, Commerce, Trades and Ni-Vanuatu Business portfolio, was quoted by the Vanuatu Daily Post today as saying: “Enough is enough.”

He sent a clear message which told police to “arrest those involved in the kidnapping and assault of a female employee of the Vanuatu Helicopters”.

Lengkon was allegedly abducted and beaten after posting criticism of Vanuatu bus and taxi drivers on social media.

In an email to the Auckland-based Pacific Media Centre, Post media director Dan McGarry, who broke the story on Monday after interviewing Lengkon, said today: “I think this might just be a watershed moment in Vanuatu society.

“It’s the very first time that the preponderance of opinion has been in defence of the vulnerable instead of deferring to bullies.”

McGarry has written numerous articles concerning the unequal treatment and violence against women in Vanuatu.

He told Pacific Media Watch that he had been waiting for almost a decade for a “brave woman” to confront the public with details surrounding their circumstances.

“That woman is Florence Lengkon, as it turns out. Her treatment at the hands of a small group of out-of-control bullies transcends the long-standing tensions at the wharf itself. And for once, people are willing to admit that.”

He said he was satisfied Deputy Prime Minister Joe Natuman had spoken out defending Lengkon’s case, citing that the frequent lack of pressure and action from the government’s highest authorities was a fundamental factor that had resulted in similar cases being ignored and then forgotten.

“It’s certainly true that, no matter what his motivations, DPM Joe Natuman reacted swiftly and decisively, giving everyone their marching orders and making it abundantly clear that this case was not going to be swept under the carpet. So far, events indicate that officials are in fact intent on stopping this kind of behaviour,” McGarry said.

“Nobody is pretending that Florence’s case marks the end of gender-based violence and systemic discrimination against women in Vanuatu society. But I think we can mark this moment as the point where a vocal and influential group began to say, ‘enough’.”

Lengkon posted on her Facebook page, saying she was going “to stay positive to the end”.

Court warrant
The Post reported local police had so far arrested seven people alleged to have been involved in the kidnapping and attack on Lengkon.

Even though the prosecution unit reportedly applied for a court warrant to detain the seven suspects until police completed the investigations and subsequent court hearings, the suspects were released under strict conditions and must appear in court on March 31.

The attack on Lengkon came after she commented on a Facebook post in an online discussion where members of the public blamed the Port Vila and Efate Land Transport Authority (PVELTA) for a recent string of violent activity at the wharf.

Dan McGarry’s article about the incident on Monday reported that Lengkon’s comment had called the bus and taxi drivers “big headed” and “unprofessional”.

In her interview with the Daily Post, Lengkon she was approached by three men who pulled her from office, located on the Port Vila waterfront, on mid-Sunday morning. They forced her into a bus and took her to the wharf.

She said there were lots of taxi and bus drivers, who she was ordered to apologise too, but received verbal abuse and eventually was hit. McGarry’s report quoted her as saying:

“I apologised. I apologised for a second time, and one of them gestured like he was going to hit me. That’s when I started to cry and bent down to hide my face. I don’t know who hit me, but someone did. Blood began to run down my face.”

Details have not been released on why Lengkon’s comment was singled out and targeted as a threat when her comment was only one of more than 100 responses to the public Facebook post.

Her attack emphasises the escalating tensions between bus and taxi drivers who are dealing with loss of tourism at the port due Vanuatu’s shaky economy.

In February, rocks were thrown at a passenger-full tour bus.

A Daily Post article stated “eye witnesses reported that the ‘bus drivers were banging on the back of the buses, yelling at them and then started to stone the vehicles'”.

TJ Aumua is contributing editor of the Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Media Watch freedom project.

Brave woman tells of beating by Vanuatu drivers – 7 arrested

“Coinciding with this March 8 – as International Women’s Day – we women also have the right to equal wages and prosperity,” said one of the women protesters in a speech.

Based on Tribun Jabar’s observations, a number of police personnel were mobilised to secure the protest action.

Several worker representatives also entered the city hall in order to meet with officials and discuss their demands.

Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service. The original title of the report in Tribun Jabar was “Buruh Perempuan Demo Menuntut Kesetaraan Upah di Balai Kota Bandung”.

An International Women’s Day message by Holly Miller.

I’m writing this from Fiji, where a 30-day State of Emergency continues following Tropical Cyclone Winston, which struck on the February 20, cutting a path of destruction across the island nation for two whole days.

The cyclone has wreaked havoc on Fijian communities. Thousands of people are still staying in evacuation centres and depend on relief distributions of food and water after the cyclone destroyed their homes.

I’m here with ActionAid Australia. We’re an international organisation working to ensure that women all over the world have access to their human rights, and we support women to fight for them when they have to. At ActionAid Australia, we specialise in protecting women’s rights in emergencies.

When a disaster strikes – when an earthquake hits and buildings fall to the ground, when great waves wipe out villages in a super typhoon, or when a cyclone hits, blowing communities’ homes and livelihoods away, we focus on how that disaster has specifically affected women.

Not forgotten
Part of our focus is ensuring that women’s specific needs are not forgotten in emergency situations. Things like including pads and tampons in relief packages. Things like making sure that pregnant women are cared for when they are staying in crowded evacuation centres.

This only happens, however, when women are listened to and sadly they are so often ignored. Ridiculous actually, because in any disaster it is always women who take responsibility for making sure that those around them are cared for. I’ve seen it time and time again.

After Cyclone Pam hit Vanuatu last year, I spoke to a number of women who all said the same thing.

It was women who ran around their communities before the cyclone to make sure that people took shelter in safe structures. It was women who stockpiled food, and then made sure everybody got some when it had to be rationed out after all their crops had been blown away.

Here in Fiji it’s no different.

ActionAid is working in Fiji with local partner, FemLINK PACIFIC – a feminist media organisation. FemLINK has a network of women across Fiji who work together to ensure that women’s voices are heard, and their priorities are included when decisions are made by the government. Their campaign is called Women’s Weather Watch, focused on ensuring women have access to critical weather updates.

Last to leave
Since I’ve been here, I’ve spent a lot of time talking with the women from FemLINK’s team, and they’ve shared the same story. When a cyclone is on the way, women are the last to evacuate the house because they’re busy making sure their families are fully prepared for what is to come.

Despite this, in disasters past, women have normally been excluded from official preparedness and relief efforts. They have not been listened to, and consequently, their needs have not been met – and nor have the needs of their families and their communities.

So that’s why we’re here. ActionAid and FemLINK are working together to ensure that women have their say in this disaster. We’re supporting women to speak out on what it is they need, and what their community needs, and ensuring that their voices are heard loud and clear.

This International Women’s Day, we’re standing in solidarity with the women in affected communities in Fiji. We’re celebrating their strength and resilience, and we’re asking Australians to stand with us, as we stand behind them and amplify the call to step up for gender equality.

And stand with us as we speak up to convince our leaders to repair the Australian Aid budget and stop the government from cutting aid to its lowest ever if the their scheduled A$224 million cut (on top of the A$11.3 billion that has already been cut) goes ahead this year.

Holly Miller is a spokesperson for ActionAid Australia.

Ali’imalemanu Alofa Tuuau is a proud Samoan woman. She is the only new female representative in Samoa’s Parliament, having secured her seat at Alataua West on Friday during the General Election.

Speaking to the Samoa Observer, she said she is ready to serve her constituency and the country.

Ali’imalemanu said she was honoured to have been elected by her district and she hoped the result would encourage other women to step up.

“I don’t believe in this saying, ‘promoting equal rights’, because there are equal rights of women everywhere but it’s just that they are not using it,” said Ali’imalemanu.

“The main thing that I will be focusing on with this issue is to try and build women’s self confidence.

“We are the problem because we put ourselves down. When I was growing up until I started working, I never struggled because of the non-equal rights.

‘No self-confidence’
“It is us. We don’t use it and we have no self-confidence, but it is an issue that we can deal with because it’s easy. These are some of the things that I want to work on.”

Looking at the developments in her constituency, she said it was early days.

“I believe that there are so many things that need to be done within my constituency, like the improvement of roads and also education,” she said.

“However, we need to have a meeting with my constituency first, to see what they need me to prioritise in terms of developments.

“I didn’t make any promises or plans as I was focusing on winning the election rather than making promises.”

Asked about her thoughts on the General Election and how it went, Ali’imalemanu said there were a few problems but praised the Office of the Electoral Commissioner for their work.

As for Parliament being a one-party state, Ali’imalemanu said the government would have to be extra careful with its decision-making.

‘New challenge’
“I know the government is prepared for a whole new challenge,” she said.

“Before it was the Opposition which provided those questions. Now that they are no longer here, the government should really think hard about its decision making. It will have to be accountable to itself and the public.”

Ali’imalemanu acknowledged the support of her constituency.

An accountant by profession, she comes into the role well qualified.

She worked at the Public Trust as a Chief Accountant for 13 years before she moved to Fiji to work as a finance manager for another 13 years at the University of the South Pacific.

When she returned to Samoa, she took up an administration job at the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) where she had been for 14 years.

The 58-year-old is a mother of four with two grandchildren.

Diedre Fanene is a reporter on the Samoa Observer.

Samoa now a ‘one party state’

By Mary Jack Kaviamu

My journey started in 2008, when I sought the endorsement of community leaders in my home island of Tanna to contest the Vanuatu provincial elections. I didn’t get their approval. I was told it is against kastom for women to be in Parliament, and that I wasn’t prepared to take up such a challenge.

I tried again in 2012, this time paying my candidate fee without the approval of the community chief. When the community leaders learnt of this, they organised a meeting to stop me from contesting. They asked that I give up my candidate fee to a male candidate of their choice, promising in return that they would support me in the 2016 national general election.

I respected their decision and gave my ticket away. Their male candidate failed to win.

In 2015, cyclone Pam devastated Vanuatu, with Tanna being one of the worst-hit islands. Women bore the brunt of the devastation, forcing them to seek out new ways to survive. A realisation began to dawn that it was time for them to stand up and speak for themselves.

After numerous meetings with women groups, the first ever Tanna Women’s Forum was held in October 2015. More than 1200 attended the meeting where women demanded change to a political system that held them down, tied them in poverty, and gave them no opportunity to speak out.

It was a breakthrough moment as many of these women have lived under threat all of their lives.

The women put their heads together and agreed it was time someone took the lead. I was nominated. The women agreed that I would contest the next general election scheduled for late 2016.

Just days later the government announced a snap election, effectively wiping out our time to put together an election campaign. We moved ahead, anyway, with membership numbers now standing at 3700. We had much confidence that we would secure one of the seven seats in the Tanna open constituency.

With very little time to prepare, I took on the challenge with much confidence. That as a solid membership of women we could succeed, and that even if we failed to win a seat, we would learn valuable lessons from the snap election experience that would better prepare us for the next general elections in 2020.

I had so much confidence. I wasn’t thinking of losing; our hopes based on the registration figures signed by women across the island.

Crossing controversial territory
The first obstacle was informing community leaders of our decision to field our own candidate – a woman. Working with a chief that I have close ties to, a community meeting was arranged whereby I would declare and launch my candidacy.

No one uttered a word, except a female friend who stood up, and much to my surprise, said: “I am not in support of women being electoral representatives in Parliament, and I am also against the policy of reserving seats for women.” I took this understandably as coming from someone speaking from her heart, but it also confirmed that the notion that women “do not belong in Parliament” was not held by men alone.

With no financial backing (other than two small personal contributions totalling 15,000 vatu) I had to dig into my own pockets to fund the campaign. I must say the election process is very expensive, with transportation in Tanna costing 20,000 vatu per day. We hired six public transport vehicles for the campaign.

We managed to visit (and revisit in some cases) 19 communities, speaking with roughly 700 men and women. Our slogan was Hemi Taem! (It is time!).

Taking centre stage during the campaigns was the most challenging. The questions and comments raised by communities were not difficult to answer, but there were also tricky ones coming from those who perceived us to be defying kastom.

‘You have not killed a fly or an ant, how can you prove that you can work like men in parliament. You are nothing but a woman.’

‘Our custom and culture perfectly points out your place – which is to look after the children, and mine (male speaking) is to do the talking. Where is your respect for this kastom? Are you from Australia that you don’t know our kastom? Who has given you this right to contest?’

‘Maybe we can vote for you in the provincial council election, but not to parliament.’

‘Our fear right now is the domestic violence law; we do not want our women to take those laws into their own hands.’

‘We don’t want to vote for women, because we don’t want women to have the right over us men.’

‘We don’t want our women to vote for women. If they do, we will divorce them.’

In a lot of places, prior to our campaign meetings, there would be community meetings, most held in the nakamal where “consensus” was often reached for all community members to vote for a particular candidate.

In some cases, I wasn’t allowed to go and campaign – even to speak to just the women. In one case, some women called me and said: “Mary, please don’t come to our community as you will not be allowed to speak here.”

Discrimination and the threat of violence
The campaign revealed that culture is a main contributor to the limitation of woman’s influence in politics. I’ve seen how a lot of people are reluctant to vote for a woman.

We did not receive discrimination from men alone, but women also. The discrimination we received was more on emotional violence. Discrimination against women in the society was very obvious at the time of campaigning and we observed how discrimination was somewhat based on a woman’s age, her marital status, her level of education and economic status.

And as such, a woman may not be considered to be valuable or worthwhile if she does not fit the collective representation of both men and women.

Personally, I was able to endure a male-dominated political campaign period, but stories of threats of violence experienced by some women have just been unbearable. There are many of such accounts, ones that I share with a sad heart.

This is one woman’s account of the threat she received from her partner the night before the poll:

I was already in bed pretending I had fallen asleep for some hours, but my husband came up and woke me up. He held a knife to my throat and demanded that I tell him who I was going to vote for. I was so afraid, I did not speak. He told me to speak or else he would beat me. I started crying. I was short of breath and was shaking. I cried out, “please help me … someone listening outside, please help me!”

But nobody came to my rescue because they were afraid of my husband. He pushed me down, punched me again on my stomach and head, and said he was giving me a chance to speak or else he would beat me up. He knew of my intention to support women in this election.

I begged him to let go of my throat or I was going to die, and I promised him that I was going to vote for the candidate of his choosing.

Another woman also had a similar story.

I saw you talking with those women, but I have stated clearly my rules and you have to follow them. We are going to vote for a male candidate and not for any woman. If you fail my words and I find out the numbers at our polling station, I will make you pay for it.

Other women were reportedly threatened by their partners to show candidate photos after they had cast their votes to prove they voted for a particular candidate. In some polling station, men threatened to divorce or physically torture their wives if results showed a significant number of women’s votes from that particular polling station.

A way forward
Political parties, as we know, are the most important institutions affecting women’s political participation. Even though our group knew we could have more support (moral and financial) from political parties if we ran under one of them, we still made the hard choice of running as an independent candidate.

We had a few reasons for this, with the main one being that bigger political parties filed their candidates in advance, leaving no space for women to contest under their ticket. Secondly, women still have a long way to learn about the processes and lobbying involved in politics.

In spite of the challenges women continue to face, I see a new generation of powerful women flourishing in Tanna. Women with a strong sense of identity and power.

Through our journey, many have come to understand that participation in the electoral processes involves much more than just voting. It is time to exercise the democratic rights that have either been ignored or violated over the last 36 years.

Through our journey in politics, many have come to appreciate that through political participation women can have the freedom to speak out for the first time in the island’s history, which they’ve done through campaigning, assembling, associating and participating.

I have seen the power of ordinary women who have stood up against injustices to say they are tired. I have seen the faces of those who shed tears because of so much ill-dealing and threatening within their homes and communities.

We have started a journey where we will continue to celebrate the united power of women who have taken the first steps to uncovering the multiple forms of discrimination and injustices. We shall continue to seek the empowerment of women to a level where they can think and speak for themselves.

Mary Jack Kaviamu has more than 10 years experience working with provincial government, which included a period as acting secretary-general of the Tafea Provincial Government Council. She worked at the Pacific Institute of Public Policy (PiPP) from 2010 to 2015 to implement a programme of political stakeholder engagement in Vanuatu. She is currently a manager for ActionAid. This article was first published on both Vanuatu Daily Digest and the PiPP blog and is republished by arrangement with PiPP.

Vanuatu’s record on women’s rights will be scrutinised by a United Nations committee in Geneva from tomorrow.

The committee will review the country’s progress in implementing the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, which it has ratified.

Vanuatu faces significant challenges meeting its commitments, being near the bottom of world rankings for measures including access to justice, equality in marriage and equal pay for equal work.

The committee will also review Vanuatu’s progress in addressing violence against women, sexual violence, sexual harassment as a specific criminal offence, and the low numbers of women in public life.