Conference to end child violence in the Pacific

Transcript

Pacific Island nations have some of the highest rates of violence against children in the world - an issue UNICEF says needs to be brought out of the shadows.

This week, the children's charity will host a three-day conference in Fiji to bring policy makers, civil society groups and religious leaders from 14 Pacific countries together to come up with solutions to what it calls an "alarming" problem.

Mary Baines reports.

The UNICEF Chief of Child Protection Amanda Bissex says there are high rates of violence against children in homes and schools in the Pacific.

AMANDA BISSEX: Across the board we found usage of corporal punishment mainly in the household but also somewhat in schools. And in most cases it was at least 70 percent or more of adults admitted to using violent punishment that would harm their child in the last month. So overall, quite alarming and high rates.

Research collated by UNICEF says in Palau, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands, more than 20 percent of parents use physical punishment that hurts a child on a daily basis, and verbal abuse is used on at least 12 percent of children every day. It says Tuvalu, the Marshalls and Solomon Islands are among the top five countries globally with the highest proportion of adolescent boys who are supportive of wife beating. It says between 40 and 68 percent of Pacific women have experienced violence from an intimate partner, compared to the 37 percent globally. Ms Bissex says there are a number of contributing factors to the high rate of violence, including social norms, culture, and a lack of robust child protection services and legislation in some countries.

AMANDA BISSEX: You have social norms and traditions that find it acceptable to use violence as a way of discipline and a way of punishment. It's partly attitudes towards children, children are considered part of the household but possessions almost of adults. Also parents who have grown up in violent households are more likely to perpetrate that violence themselves. It becomes normalised in the culture.

In Tonga, the Women's Crisis Centre's director Ofa Guttenbeil Likiliki says anecdotally, she has seen a steady increase in the number of child abuse reports.

OFA GUTTENBEIL-LIKILIKI: We're particuarly seeing an increase in the area of reported sexual violence. This is quite a difficult area because you know, it's still very taboo to talk about and a lot of the sexual violations that happen to our children are kept under the carpet, because of a lot of cultural taboos and embarrassment.

Ms Guttenbeil Likiliki says the introduction of the Family Protection Act last year means Tonga has stepped up the pace of providing protection for children. But she says changing the law is only one part of the solution.

OFA GUTTENBEIL-LIKILIKI: The law can't do everything. We also have to change attitudes and mindsets and behaviours, and once we can do that - that's the hardest job. Actually passing laws, people think that's the challenge, I think the biggest challenge is changing mindsets and attitudes in how we are raising children and what kind of environment we are raising them in.

The co-ordinator of the Vanuatu Women's Centre, Merilyn Tahi, says until gender inequality in the country is addressed, violence against women and children will remain. She says it is a poor excuse to link the high levels of violence to culture.

MERILYN TAHI: It is not culture. Culture has changed, cultural behaviours, cultural traditional practises have changed, so why can't we change? If it is culture, why can't we change and stop committing violence on women and children? Victims are getting younger and younger. How can a man commit incest on his children? If it is culture, where does that come from?

A spokesperson for the Methodist Church in Fiji, James Bhagwan, says while corporal punishment has been outlawed in the country, there is still the traditional way of thinking that if you spare the rod, you spoil the child. Reverend Bhagwan says Fiji needs to look at why rates of violence are so high.

JAMES BHAGWAN: We tend to dismiss our young children as they don't have a space in society, they don't have space in communities. They are often neglected for other events that adult consider more important. Unfortunately sometimes it's to do with church, but it can also be doing things for community. So it's where we place our priority on children.

A Samoa family court judge, Leilani Tuala-Warren, says after the introduction of the Family Safety Act in 2013, the number of victims coming forward there is increasing. Judge Tuala-Warren says the law allows the court to grant protection orders when there has been domestic violence, including on a child.

LEILANI TUALA-WARREN: Any person can apply for a protection order on behalf of a child. Their legal counsel, it can be a village representative, a child welfare officer, a health service provider, a social worker, a teacher. So all those people who may see this child coming to school with a black eye and might ask the child what's happening, it is open for those people to apply to the court for a protection order.

Judge Tuala-Warren says there have been some problems in ensuring the police serve protection orders immediately, especially in remote parts of the country. She says at the conference, she hopes to find out how other nations have dealt with similar issues.

LEILANI TUALA-WARREN: An interim protection order, it must be served immediately. It is a matter of life and death for some women and children. So we are just trying to work around some of the ways we can get service to our most remote parts of the island, and other islands. These are sort of logistical issues that I am hoping people can share their experience when I go to this conference.

Ms Bissex says at the conference, countries will be asked to come up with three commitments they can implement within the next 18 months. She says that could include strengthening a law, ratifying the optional protocol on the sale of children and child prostitution, or introducing child protection policies in its schools. Ms Bissex says it's hoped the conference will mobilise real change.