The United Nations is interviewing women across five Pacific nations to gain better data on the prevalence of gender-based violence.
The Director of the UN Population Fund, Dr Laurent Zessler, says the Family Health and Safety Studies are a crucial way to get governments and the judiciary responding to violence issues.
He says the police, the health sector and the judiciary need to communicate to avoid vulnerable women having nowhere to go when they become victims.
"If the number are quite dramatic and serious it requires more stronger engagement from the authorities. If the authorities, you know, are not, you know, fully on board, for example, taking stronger measures, running a large campaign of information, punishing, punishing, prosecuting the perpetrators, you know, this could degenerate."
Dr Laurent Zessler says the target age-group for the survey has been expanded from 15-49 years to 15-64 years.
