Monday 10 June 2013, Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), Suva, Fiji –

A four-day regional consultation on violence against women legislation in the Pacific, organised by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community Regional Rights Resources Team (SPC RRRT), is currently underway this week in Nadi, Fiji.

In her remarks at the opening ceremony of the consultation, guest speaker Shamina Ali, Coordinator of the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre, called for gender specific domestic violence laws in the Pacific as a vital way forward in addressing discrimination against women in the region.

A good example of gender specific domestic violence law, Ms Ali added, is India’s Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act of 2005. The act guarantees a women’s right to reside in the matrimonial or shared household, irrespective of whether she has any title or rights in the property.

Other presentations during the opening ceremony reaffirmed the findings of national surveys showing the high prevalence of violence against women in the Pacific. The recent research shows rates of 68% in Kiribati, 60% in Vanuatu, 64% in Solomon Islands, 46% in Samoa and 61% in Fiji.

Participants were also reminded that legislation is only one aspect of the work needed to address violence against women; it is equally important to ensure resources are available for the implementation of the laws and to monitor progress.

Activities on the agenda for this week’s consultation include reviewing legislation to address violence against women in the region and lessons learnt from national committees and consultations, sharing lessons on law reform strategies undertaken in countries and developing plans to progress legislative law reform in the Pacific.

This consultation is the 5th organised since 2009 and is part of SPC RRRT’s programme to develop and support comprehensive integrated legislation that addresses all forms of violence against women. The aim is to build capacity at the national level to advocate for improved legislation through the development of appropriate policy papers and comprehensive legislative reviews encompassing all aspects of legislative change that affect women suffering from violence.

The consultation this week is being attended by government and civil society stakeholders including legal drafters from Cook Islands, Kiribati, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. This consultation and work to support legislative change in addressing violence against women is supported by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID).

For more information, please contact Jilda Shem, SPC RRRT Communications Officer on +679 330 5994 or email [email protected].

Wednesday 5 June 2013, Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), Suva, Fiji –

A three-day regional consultation for judges and senior magistrates from across the Pacific, organised by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community Regional Rights Resources Team (SPC RRRT), took place this week in Brisbane, Australia.

The consultation focused on judicial independence, rule of law, and human rights issues in the contemporary Pacific context. They included sexual- and gender-based violence, disability inclusiveness and impacts of the Convention of the Rights of the Child on adoption.

The consultation serves as a forum for judges and magistrates from the Pacific region to share their professional experiences, with the aim of expanding their knowledge of human rights issues and best practices in the region.

The keynote address at the opening ceremony on Monday was delivered by Justice Logan of the Federal Court of Australia. The Pacific judges and magistrates were later hosted to a cocktail reception by the Chief Justice of Queensland, the Honourable Paul de Jersey, and judges of the Supreme Court of Queensland.

The consultation was attended by judges and magistrates from Australia, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Tuvalu.

SPC RRRT has supported the work of regional judges and magistrates for over a decade, mainly focusing on the promotion and application of international human rights treaties and universal standards in Pacific courts. This work supports state obligations derived through the ratification of international human rights treaties and the application and domestication of international human rights standards in Pacific courts.

The regional consultation this week is generously supported by AusAID.

For more information, please contact Jilda Shem, SPC RRRT Communications Officer on +679 330 5994 or email [email protected]

Tuesday 12 February 2013, Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), Suva, Fiji –

Fifteen human rights trainers from the Pacific region have graduated with greater capacity in imparting knowledge and skills through professional training after an intensive two week training course conducted by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community Regional Rights Resource Team (SPC-RRRT) in Suva, Fiji.

The training of trainers (ToT) course, facilitated by Trevor Kliese from Training Australia Unlimited, was an empowering experience, as the trainers increased their training skills in line with international standards. The ToT programme will assist not only trainers, but all others working in the area of capacity building, where the transfer of knowledge, skills and information is critical. This training was unique in that the skills component was complemented by the use of human rights topics.

The RRRT trainers who graduated from the course provide human rights training for government departments and civil society organisations throughout the Pacific region. This ToT training provides graduates with enhanced skills and techniques, leading to improved services and outcomes in SPC member countries.

Matakina Simii, a disability advocate in Tuvalu, is optimistic that she will put the knowledge she acquired from the ToT training to good use. One of her first priorities when she returns home will be to advocate through her training for the ratification of the Convention for the Rights of People with Disability, so that more children with disability can access education.

Commenting on the course, RRRT Country Focal Officer in Kiribati, Amberoti Nikora, who was previously a Member of Parliament in Kiribati, said he would have done better as a human rights advocate in Parliament if he had received this training during his time as MP.

Lepolo Taunila, RRRT Country Focal Officer in Tonga and a former Tongan Member of Parliament, expressed a similar sentiment, saying that the training has taught her the importance of good training preparation, sourcing the right facts to support her training and understanding adult learning principles in order to tailor training to meet the needs of her learners.

As part of the training, the recipients discussed contemporary human rights issues affecting Pacific Island nations, including violence against women, children's rights to education and health services, refugee rights, corruption and media freedom.

The ToT course was conducted from January 28 to February 8 and included participants from Fiji, Nauru, Tuvalu, Tonga, Kiribati, Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia. The training was generously supported by AusAID.

For more information, please contact Jilda Shem, SPC-RRRT Communications Officer on +679 330 5994 or email [email protected]

The Pacific Regional Rights Resource Team (RRRT) is a programme of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community and provides training, technical support, and policy and advocacy services tailored specifically for the Pacific region. Based in Suva, Fiji, RRRT has programmes across the Pacific Islands, with partners including governments, regional and civil society organisations

Visit the SPC website: www.spc.int

2 October 2012, Secretariat of the Pacific Community, Suva, Fiji -

Communities and groups within member countries of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) are making use of the resources offered by the SPC Legislative Lobbying Project.

The SPC Lobbying Project is a supported by the AusAID-funded Pacific Leadership Programme.

Ms Seema Naidu, SPC Pacific Regional Rights Resource Team (RRRT), said that civil society groups in Vanuatu, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Tonga, Solomon Islands and Samoa are engaged in a variety of community-led projects that are heading towards legislative change within their countries.

Ms Naidu is a trainer responsible for coordinating the Legislative Lobbying Project.

For example, in Nauru, a group of people with disabilities are addressing the rights of the disabled, and Chiefs in Vanuatu are supporting gender equality and promoting human rights.

This ownership is assisted by the information RRRT and the Legislative Lobbying Project provide to communities about their countries' constitutions and the purpose that laws fulfill.

She said that, as an example, access to clean water may be a health and sanitation issue, an environmental issue, or a climate change issue, but underlying all of these is the issue of a fundamental human right.

'For example, Vanuatu is engaged in three campaigns. One is on the outdated sexual offence penal code, which brought together local communities, the Department of Women, the Police Department, the Vanuatu Law Reform Commission, as well as the NGO World Vision.

Secondly, the Trade Unions are cooperating to progress the Vanuatu Employment Relations Bill so that it becomes an Act. In the process, union representative Evelyn Barney focused, successfully, on increasing the minimum wage.

Thirdly, there is a campaign to amend the Peoples Representation Act, a legislative change that will ensure a certain number of reserved seats for women in Parliament.

Ms Naidu said that the project gives people in the participating countries the opportunity to enter into a dialogue with their parliamentarians.

MEDIA RELEASE
(17 Aug 12)

Ministry of Internal Affairs will host the Joint National Consultation on theReviewed National Policy on Gender and Development 2012 (GAD) and Strengthening Capacitiesfor Peace and Development (CPAD) in Tonga on 20-24 August 2012 at the Fa'onelua Convention Centre in Nuku'alofa.

His Serene Highness Prince Tungi will deliver the keynote address in the opening ceremony at the International Dateline Hotel on the evening of 20th August. It will be followed by a four-day workshop at the Fa'onelua Convention Centre.

The first day will focus on the outcome of community consultations on the ReviewedNational Policy on Gender and Development.

The presentations and discussions of the gender issues and challenges will be chaired and co-chaired by the Hon Minister of Internal Affairs, Lord Vaea, and CEO of Internal Affairs respectively and will be facilitated by the Department of Women's Affairs and representatives of NGOs.

The following three days will focus on developing a framework for collaboration between Government and Civil Society on building capacities for peace and unity in Tonga.

This will involve conflict analysis and mapping exercises to identify all of the critical issues impacting on peace and unity in Tonga and to discuss processes and resources required to create/re-create and maintain a culture of peace and unity.

The organisers are expecting the participation from a broad and varied group of attendees including Government and Community representatives from across the Kingdom including the two Governors and Government representatives from Niuatoputapu, NiuaFo'ou, Vava'u, Ha'apai and 'Eua and District officers.

The consultation is jointly organized and funded by Women's Affairs on behalf of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, UNDP, AusAID, and CPAD-Tonga.
Ends

For further information please contact LepoloTaunisila, [email protected], Women's Affairs, Ministry of Internal Affairs, phone (676) 27145

Press Release – 15 December 2009

'Violence against women costs the Australian economy close to $8.1 billion per year,' said Queensland's Attorney General Hon.

Cameron Dick MP at the opening of an annual consultation with regional members of parliament in Brisbane, Australia held by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community's Regional Rights Resource Team (SPC / RRRT).

Twenty-five MPs from Tonga, Vanuatu, Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea (PNG), Samoa, Tuvalu, Nauru and Kiribati attended this year's event, which focused on violence against women legislation.

The Attorney General stated that he was 'pleased that so many fellow parliamentarians from the Pacific Island countries have shown their commitment to improving the lives of Pacific people.' He made the comments in light of the recent data revealing extremely high prevalence rates of violence against women in the Pacific.

Both Kiribati and Solomon Islands were amongst the countries with the highest rates in a 17-country study by the World Health Organisation. In this study, only Ethiopia and Peru surpassed Kiribati and Solomon Islands in prevalence rates. PNG, Fiji Islands and Samoa have also been shown to have high prevalence rates in other studies.

In a conference room packed with members of parliament from nine Pacific countries, Queensland's Attorney General quoted the recent Cairns Communiqué in which Forum Leaders addressed the issue of sexual and gender-based violence and called for a range of measures to address it, including legal measures.

The Hon. Cameron Dick reiterated the stance taken by the Forum leaders by acknowledging that sexual and gender-based violence 'is now widely recognised as a risk to human security and a potential destabilising factor for communities and societies alike.'

The acknowledgment from Forum leaders is 'most welcome', he said because violence against women is a serious global problem that affects every country.

In 2006, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution calling on all member states and the United Nations system to intensify efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women. Such violence has compounding human rights implications; causing trauma to women, families and communities. Sexual and gender-based violence is both a symptom and a cause of gender inequality and discrimination.

The Minister of Justice from the Republic of Nauru, Hon. Matthew Batsiua, stated

The Hon. Cameron Dick once served as the Attorney General of Tuvalu and was quite proud of that fact. He jokingly said that

He also said that he was proud that Tuvalu was 'mixing it with the big guns in Copenhagen.' The consultation in Brisbane will also discuss human rights implications of climate change.

The members of parliament have a week to look at human rights issues, including violence against women and HIV legislation, the new compulsory Universal Periodic Review process and the potential of a regional human rights mechanism to serve the needs of Pacific Island governments and peoples.

The consultation is funded and supported by SPC / RRRT, the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAid), the New Zealand Agency for International Development (NZAID), the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Pacific Islands HIV and STI Response Fund.

The Pacific Regional Rights Resource Team (RRRT) is a programme under the Social Resources Division of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community. For more information regarding this event, please contact Gwen Philips at [email protected] or Imrana Jalal at [email protected].

Tuesday 11 March 2009, Secretariat of the Pacific Community, New York

Pacific laws on violence against women (VAW) are outdated and treat women with indifference despite the globally high rates of VAW in the Pacific region.

Pacific Island governments need to make a concerted effort to review this legislation so that laws can better protect women.

Secretariat of the Pacific Community/Regional Rights Resource Team (SPC/RRRT) Gender and Human Rights Advisor, Imrana Jalal, made the comments whilst addressing members of the Pacific Islands Forum who attended the 53rd United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) held recently in New York.

Pacific representatives from the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, as well as Australia and New Zealand attended the meeting.

Jalal told those Pacific government representatives that only a handful of Pacific Island countries and territories (PICTs) had made some progress.

Jalal said Fiji had addressed some elements of domestic violence in its family law but had not touched sexual violence or domestic violence in its criminal or civil codes. Despite being the first country in the region to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, Samoa had not passed any legislation addressing any area of women's rights, since ratification.

Jalal was at the UNCSW as chair of the high-level UN Expert Group on Best Practices in Violence against Women Legislation. The panel advises the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on best practices from around the globe in terms of laws which relate to violence against women (VAW).

She told the PICT government representatives that SPC/RRRT had won a substantial grant from the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) Trust Fund. SPC/RRRT had to compete with 1027 applicants worldwide for the grant.

The grant, worth USD 720,000 provides SPC/RRRT with some resources to work with PICT governments and non-government organisations to help reform laws which relate to VAW. SPC/RRRT was the only Pacific organisation to win one of the 28 grants available.

Jalal said the grant focused on addressing the issue of legislation specifically, and SPC/RRRT's effort is meant to build on the groundwork already laid by organisations such the Fiji Women's Crisis Centre (FWCC) Pacific Women's Network on VAW.

The UNIFEM Trust Fund Pacific project ties in with the expert group's findings on best practices globally. Jalal said the best VAW laws emanated from the developing world, not the developed world, citing Mexico, Albania and India as examples.

Jalal said that compared to global standards, Vanuatu's new domestic violence law is also 'pretty decent legislation', although it is far from perfect. She said there were no perfect laws in the arena of human relationships.

Jalal said that the goal of the SPC/RRRT UNIFEM Trust Fund project was 'changing laws protecting women and lobbying for legislative change in violence against women and family law in order to enhance protective legislation for women and girls in six PICTs'.

Initially, SPC/RRRT will begin the legislative reforms with the governments of Cook Islands, Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Samoa.

Jalal said that there was no need to re-invent the wheel as the UN Expert Group on Best Practices in VAW Legislation had come up with a compilation of best practices from around the globe which could be adapted to suit the Pacific context.

Whilst in New York Jalal made four presentations at various CSW panels as Chair of the UN Expert Group on Best Practices in VAW Legislation and also a half-hour video on VAW legislation for the UN's Division for the Advancement of Women (UNDAW). The video will be available on UNDAW's website shortly.

For more information, contact Sandra Bernklau, Programme Manager SPC/RRRT +(679) 3305 582 or email: [email protected]

Background: The Regional Rights Resource Team (RRRT), which is a programme of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), works with partners in nine focus countries (Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Samoa,Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Nauru and Vanuatu) to offer training and expert advice on the development of human rights advocacy, lobbying, mobilisation strategies and the drafting of national human rights legislation. The team provides human rights training, technical support, and policy and advocacy services tailored specifically for the Pacific region. Its mission is to seek a Pacific region that is respected for the quality of its governance, the sustainable management of its resources, the full observance of democratic values and for its defence and promotion of human rights.

18 February 2009, Secretariat of the Pacific Community, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

They came in all colours, shapes and sizes, and in all manner of dress, both traditional and modern, veiled and unveiled, religious and non-religious, to begin a global campaign called Musawah.

Organised by the Malaysian Muslim feminist organisation, Sisters in Islam (SIS), Musawah, which means 'equality' in Arabic, brought together Muslim feminists, women's rights and human rights activists and lawyers to debate and discuss justice and equality in the family law of Islam.

Gender and Human Rights Advisor, Imrana Jalal, from the Secretariat of the Pacific Community's Regional Rights Resource Team (RRRT/SPC), was one of the panel of speakers at the 250-strong gathering at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which included the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, Yakin Ertürk, who was the keynote speaker.

Jalal, who was invited as an expert in legislative change, led two sessions on changing family laws in environments unfavourable to gender equality. She said the Musawah movement was only at its beginning but would soon be a strong global force.

Musawah will span 50 countries with the goal of reforming family laws in a Muslim context. It works on the premise that gender equality and human rights is consistent with Islamic doctrine. The movement calls for equality, non-discrimination, justice and dignity as the basis of all human relations; full and equal citizenship for every individual; and marriage and family relations based on principles of equality and justice.

Musawah is based on the principle that equality in the family is possible through a framework that is consistent with Islamic teachings, universal human rights principles, fundamental rights guarantees, and the lived realities of women and men.

Jalal shared the strategies she had learned in the passing of the Family Law Act in Fiji.

She told the BBC that although Fiji was a small country with a Muslim minority and without a parallel religious legal system, the lessons learnt on passing good legislation could be adapted and transferred to other parts of the globe.

RRRT works with partners in 9 focus countries; Cook Islands, Fiji , Kiribati , Samoa , Solomon Islands , Tonga, Tuvalu, Nauru and Vanuatu, by offering training packages and expert advice to partners which aids in the development of human rights advocacy, lobbying, mobilisation strategies and the drafting of national human rights legislation. RRRT provides human rights training, technical support, and policy and advocacy services tailored specifically for the Pacific region and with a mission to "seek a Pacific region that is respected for the quality of its governance, the sustainable management of its resources, the full observance of democratic values and for its defence and promotion of human rights".

For more information, please contact Sandra Bernklau, SPC RRRT Programme Manager (+679) 3305582 or email: [email protected].