British diplomat worried by domestic violence levels in Samoa

Transcript

The British High Commissioner to Samoa recently made a final visit to Apia from Wellington before she moves on from her role in July.

Vicki Treadell told Jenny Meyer one of the areas she's focussed on has been gender equality and while she's pleased to see progress towards more women in parliament, research by the United Nations has revealed there's a lot more work to be done to reduce domestic violence.

VICKI TREADELL: I met someone from the UN who happened to be in Samoa at the time who shared these statistics with me. Of course you know the real solution is attitudinal change and cultural change. And I think what we both thought was quite significant was the attitude of some young teenagers. I understand that's the demographic of the group they did the research with. That when the question was asked of the young people that they interviewed "is it acceptable for the woman in the household to be beaten by her husband?" fifty per cent of boys thought that that was normal but what was more shocking was that fifty-eight per cent of the young women thought that was the norm. The real challenge is to change the perception that that is the norm and normal and acceptable. Because of course it is not acceptable. And in changing attitudes to realise that actually this should not happen. It is actually illegal. It is against the woman's human rights and that you have to change attitudes in society as part of the cure and the work that needs to be done.

JENNY MEYER: How do you think that can be put into action that kind of change? What do you see as your role in trying to help move attitudes forward towards more equality?

VT: I think advocacy of the agenda. Encouraging and supporting the Samoan government where we can. And certainly working with some of the NGO's at the front line of this work, those are tangible things that we can do.

JM: As you look towards moving on from your time spent in Samoa, what do you see as the positive aspects in terms of where the country's heading?

VT: I think there's been a lot of progress. And I think the 2016 elections in Samoa where there is a quota to see more women come into government and parliament, is a significant step forward. And I spent quite a bit of time last week talking to a number of women who are considering entering parliament, taking chiefly title in their villages in order to qualify the responsibilities they would take on as part of that process. And of course the more women that move into positions of leadership changes the balance in society.