Gender-based violence (GBV) is prolific in the Pacific, with technology now offering perpetrators another channel to cause harm to the survivor of violence.
Evidence indicates it is existing survivors of violence against women and girls, who are the primary target for TFGBV in the Pacific. This means men who are perpetuating physical, emotional, financial or other violence against women and girls are now using technology as an additional means to perpetuate violence, such as through abusive text messaging and SMS stalking, image based abuse, adult cyber abuse and more.
- Safe and Equal Online Spaces – Pacific Cyber Safety Symposium
- Pacific-led TFGBV Priorities Document
- Grants Supporting TFGBV
- Resources and Research
Safe and Equal Online Spaces – Pacific Cyber Safety Symposium
Participants at the ‘Safe and Equal Online Spaces – Pacific Cyber Safety Symposium’ have called for rapid, collaborative action to better address technology facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV1) in the Pacific region.
More than 130 people attended the symposium, including self-funded delegations from Papua New Guinea, Bangkok and Australia, plus registered and approved online participants. The symposium’s final sessions provided participants with the opportunity to nominate, discuss and agree on the priorities for the Pacific, to be recorded in the event’s Priorities Document. Through this process, participants overwhelmingly expressed their aspirations for urgent action across all sectors, and across all levels from community to national and regional, to better address TFGBV. Countries want support.
Research, legislation, education and training, collaboration and resourcing were among the top priorities nominated, in terms of thematic areas, in order for the Pacific to better address TFGBV.
These are the priorities nominated by participants at the symposium, convened from the 12-14 September in Fiji and online by the Pacific Community (SPC) through its Pacific Women Lead at SPC (PWL at SPC) programme, in partnership with Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, and supported by the Australian Government. As a member of the Council of Regional Organisations of the Pacific (CROP), SPC is collaborating with other CROP partners: the University of the South Pacific (USP) as Chair of the CROP ICT Working Group, and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS) as lead of the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent.
Pacific-led TFGBV Priorities Document
A Priorities Document to help guide future Technology Facilitated Gender Based Violence (TFGBV) work in the region was developed in 2023 by more than 130 Pacific participants at the Pacific Cyber Safety Symposium, and officially released to the public in early 2024.
The top five priorities are: research and data that is ‘Pacific’ specific; improving legislation, regulations, policies, and commitments to include TFGBV; education and training; awareness raising and information; and coordination of TFGBV efforts and laws between Pacific countries. Following is more details about the five categories:
1. Research and data that is Pacific specific: More evidence is required to guide actions to address TFGBV in the Pacific, including data and research. Research is required to learn more about TFGBV from a Pacific perspective and better understand its impacts. Details: This may include support to existing and planned TFGBV research in the Pacific, while also seeking to integrate TFGBV into other studies and research such as future intimate partner prevalence studies across the Pacific. This research should consider key target audiences and diverse women and men, girls and boys include people of diverse sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC), people with disabilities, people of different age groups, and those living in remote communities.
2. Legislation, regulations, policies and commitments: There is a need for greater understanding about: what TFGBV legislation and rules exist in Pacific Island countries; how to make these laws more comprehensive; and how to ensure continuous improvement in the implementation of existing laws that directly or indirectly address TFGBV. There is also a need to ensure TFGBV is reflected in national and regional commitments, as has been achieved in the Pacific Leaders Gender Equality Declaration Details: This process may include assessing laws that exist, reviewing laws, while also educating stakeholders to ensure awareness and implementation of existing cyber, family violence and other laws – including those that may be amended to integrate TFGBV alongside GBV. Ideally this should be coordinated in a multi-country approach, so countries can share lessons, laws and insights to save resources and expedite outputs.
3. Education and training: There is a concerning lack of understanding about TFGBV from frontline workers including police and GBV counsellors to teachers, school students, legal advisers, policy makers and others. This lack of stakeholders' understanding, information, tools and support commonly results in their inability to take action against perpetrators of TFGBV. Details: This may include, but would not be limited to: training for frontline workers and possibly also training-of-trainers (TOT); legal training for the policing and legal sectors around legislation and GBV/TFGBV reporting; training for GBV Counsellors and other counselling services; awareness and education to the community especially for young people such as through the school curriculum to teach girls and boys they are of equal value, while teaching them early about the safe use of technology and how to report any type of violence online or offline. For GBV and TFGBV gender sensitisation training is important given understanding gender inequality is essential to address GBV, including gender in all its diversity including people who identify as SOGIESC.
4. Awareness raising and information: There is a need to raise awareness about TFGBV in the Pacific across all audiences, given the current lack of awareness versus the fast-growing prevalence. Details: Key audiences to be targeted with TFGBV awareness raising include the general public, frontline workers, legal and policing sectors, faith-based and sports sectors (as major influencers of change), women leaders including politicians, SOGIESC people, and other stakeholders. The aim is to ensure audiences are aware TFGBV is a significant issue in the Pacific, along with being aware of rights and laws and having access to information, tools and support to enable survivors and stakeholders to take action to address TFGBV.
5. Coordination: Participants at the symposium overwhelmingly requested support to ensure a coordinated, multi-country approach so countries can efficiently share lessons, laws and insights to save resources and expedite outputs. Details: This coordination support may range from information sharing around legislation content and amendment processes, to funding opportunities and potentially Safety by Design to embed safety within technology.
To review the Priorities Document, click the image below:
Grants Supporting TFGBV including Online Safety
Grant support is provided directly to civil society and other partners, along with SPC member governments, for their gender projects including those that address TFGBV. Funding may also be provided to key initiatives or regional convenings focussing on TFGBV.
PWL at SPC programme grants support a wide of initiatives, as listed on the grants webpage.
The broader Pacific Women Lead portfolio – including all four delivery partners and not just SPC – supports more than AUD110 million in national, regional and other Pacific based projects to address gender inequality and advance the rights and empowerment of women and girls.
Resources and Research
More than 650 publications, feature stories and other resources are available on the Pacific Women Lead section of SPC’s Pacific Data Hub, including for EVAWG but with extremely limited research on TFGBV: https://pacificdata.org/data/group/pacific-women
For research on gender in the Pacific, refer to the Toksave Pacific Gender Resource, supported by PWL at SPC: https://www.toksavepacificgender.net/
