11 Dec 2009

Marshalls MP calls for action to curb violence

4:14 pm on 11 December 2009

A Marshall Islands MP, Tony deBrum, says the government needs to step up its response to issues of domestic violence.

Mr de Brum says it is the Women United Together Marshall Islands, the national women's organisation, which has been highlighting the problems.

He says otherwise the Marshall Islands would still be very much in the dark as to its obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, or CEDAW.

His comment follows a survey released in Majuro this week by a College of the Marshall Islands student who reported that of 328 students interviewed, nearly half said they had experienced physical violence, while about 23 percent said they had suffered sexual violence.

Mr deBrum is off to Australia to attend a regional parliamentarians' meeting on human rights issues relating to women which has been organised by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community.