Why this deafening silence - Women marching against violence against women on 27 January 2024. Photo: NC la 1ère
In New Caledonia, last month, hundreds of women have once again taken to the streets of the capital Nouméa to express their anger at recent tragic incidents, including a young mother being killed by her husband on New Year's Eve.
Dozens of angry women were brandishing placards, some of which read "Why this deafening silence?".
New Caledonia's public prosecutor Yves Dupas has recently reacted in clear, compassionate support:"This pain must be heard and this march is a rather healthy response", he told public broadcaster NC la 1ère.
Dupas recalled that New Caledonia's intra-couple statistics, which only counted reported cases followed by court proceedings (7 cases per one thousand inhabitants) were in any case twice as high as in mainland France.
Since 2012, a small dozen of legal physicians have also formed a group they call "Judicial Doctors".
Its President Dr Elizabeth Merlin said since the group was set up, they have been treating and examining "thousands" of women.
In the wake of the New Year's Eve fatality, another militant, Yvette Danguigny, has pledged to set up a new association dedicated to the fight against domestic violence and feminicides.
Once a young victim of domestic violence, Yvette Danguigny, now 62, is a long-time campaigner for women’s rights and the fight against domestic violence in New Caledonia. Photo: Les Nouvelles Calédoniennes
The new association would be named "Cris et pleurs de femmes" (Women's screams and cries).
In May 2023, she was also directly affected when her own niece died as a result of fatal wounds inflicted by a "family friend" visiting their home regularly.
Danguigny deplores that since January 1, 2024, nearly a hundred cases of domestic violence (no fatalities so far) have already been reported to the police.
Now aged 62, Yvette Danguigny also suffered domestic violence when she was younger.
A long-time pro-independence militant, she has been involved in many campaigns for women's rights and the fight against domestic violence in New Caledonia, especially within the Kanak community.
"Women are dying and nobody reacts. If you don't say anything, this means you are an accomplice", she told local media.
She now intends to confront politicians who, in her view, are too "lenient" on this criminal issue and have even completely scrapped the women's affairs portfolio from recently-appointed governments.
In French Polynesia, Chief public prosecutor Thomas Pison also voiced concern at the high numbers of domestic violence.
"This is a concern that we see year after year (...) We are told that this is some sort of a 'tradition'. I say no, tradition can never be an excuse, (French Polynesians) are not more violent than others. I think there should be more awareness building, to educate the younger generations and probably also more convictions", he told public broadcaster Polynésie la 1ère.
French Polynesia’s public prosecutor Thomas Pison. Photo: Radio1 Tahiti
Abortion still a "taboo" subject in New Caledonia
On a related women's right front, the right to have access to abortion, a recent informal study has found that appropriate services' availability varied greatly according to the location (urban or remote rural areas), Nouvelle-Calédonie la 1ère reported.
While it has now become relatively easy for women to have an abortion in the capital Nouméa, other factors seen as obstacles for women are the fact that abortion remains a "taboo" subject, especially in rural and traditional communities.
"We see women of all ages, but many of them come to consult at an already advanced stage in their pregnancy, asking for an abortion when in fact it's already too late and therefore, legally, it's no longer possible" private nurse Elodie Marnas, who works in the small town of Poindimié (East coast of the main island, Grande Terre), said.
She however estimates that most of the pregnant women she sees are young (in the 25-40 age group).
She also goes regularly to nearby secondary schools as part of reproductive health information and sensitisation programmes for students.
"This helps, because now we see they have become much more aware of contraceptive methods," Marnas said.
While in Poindimié, the number of medically-assisted abortions was estimated to "about fifteen" per year, at Nouméa's main hospital, some 225 legal abortions were declared for the same period, patients being women aged between 15 and 45 (with an average age of 23).
"Even though abortion is free and that it is relatively easy to make a confidential appointment, it remains complicated, with regards to culture and even to religion", Nouméa "Espace-Santé" public clinic midwife Karine Hesse said.
In New Caledonia, the right to abortion, which is legally termed in French legislation as "voluntary pregnancy interruption" (interruption volontaire de grossesse or IVG) was only introduced and enacted to local legislation in September 2000.
In mainland France, the abortion Act became law twenty years earlier and authorities are currently preparing to formally enshrine this right into the French Constitution.
