Report highlights sexual violence

Danielle Plesser

December 5, 2008

SOC202, 5:00 PM

A report launched by Wednesday by the Australian Government noted that “women in Fiji are victims of high levels of domestic and sexual violence”. The report concentrated on women in Melanesia and East Timor and was commissioned by AusAID. Similar to my last article about Vietnam, it concentrated on domestic violence as an issue of the region, affecting the area’s ability to develop.

I was hoping to end the semester on a high note, but this was the article I found. It was frustrating, because it’s not a particularly optimistic article, but in addition to that, this article didn’t have any figures or statistics whatsoever. This made it hard to judge the strength of their claims. The article’s line “In terms of measures to reduce violence against women, Fiji has taken the greatest steps forward compared to all other countries included in the report” was not particularly encouraging as a result, because there was no explanation of what steps were taken or how improvement was being observed.

If I look at it less for the presentation of the content and more for the issue, this article is a sad end to a semester of sad stories. Domestic violence is something that, if condoned by the community, is nearly impossible for a woman to escape. It also affects the children who witness these events during their upbringing at home, and the patterns become harder to break. The future won’t see any change, I don’t care what ‘steps Fiji has taken’ unless people really get the message.