FIJI – Fiji has one of the highest levels of domestic violence in the world, and Cyclone Winston has reportedly worsened the already less than satisfactory situation.

The founder and coordinator of FemLinkPacific, Sharon Bhagwan-Rolls, said Cyclone Winston created greater financial uncertainty for women, with many now left in charge of their households as men go off to work to rebuild in the aftermath.

“We have to unpack what protection for women actually means, and the government is failing to engage on giving women the capacity to secure a future in which they have a greater ability to control their own outcomes,” she said.

“A lot of the work we have been doing post-Cyclone Winston has been getting an understanding of the numbers that have been affected, and urging the Minister for Women and the broader government to see women as contributors in their own right.”

Estimates for Fiji compiled in 2014 said that 64 per cent of women who have been in intimate relationships have experienced physical or sexual violence from their partner, including 61 per cent who were physically attacked and 34 per cent who were sexually abused.

Bhagwan-Rolls said she was thankful the government has made some inroads into allocating resources to provide services to women who were victims of abuse.

But she said the real game-changer will be to directly engage with women about their economic vulnerability.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama delivered a stinging rebuke to the Speaker of Parliament, Jiko Luveni, over comments she made suggesting women sometimes aggravate domestic violence.

In late May, Dr Luveni sparked the controversy by saying women know “exactly what their husbands do not like, but still do it anyway”.

Speaking at the World Humanitarian Summit in Turkey, Bainimarama said such notions are out of kilter with the norms of any society, and that Fiji continues to come to grapple with unacceptable levels of abuse.

“Far too many men regard women as subservient, and possessions for the sexual gratification, and far too many men routinely resort to violence in a domestic setting,” Bainimarama told the gathering in Istanbul.

“I simply do not accept the proposition that the onus is on the woman not to provoke her partner.”

Bhagwan-Rolls said she believed the scale of the problem globally has also been underestimated by the United Nations’ most recent report into the issue.

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The co-ordinator of the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre, Shamima Ali, said under-reporting remains an issue, as women have to build up faith that reporting abuse to the authorities, such as police, would be taken seriously.

Ali said this had been undermined by recent reports of abuse within trusted religious institutions, with a church pastor charged with a serious sexual offence allegedly committed on a 16 year old.

Sexual offence statistics released by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions for the month of June highlighted that there were 47 separate incidents of sexual offences, 36 of which were rape offences. Of this, 22 people were charged.

“In many cases, the church community has rallied behind the pastor and not the victim, which sends a dangerous message because these organisations hold a position of great trust,” Ali said.

She said there needs to be a zero tolerance policy, and religious institutions must deal with every case transparently and provide continued support for the victim.

- ABC