The Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre has been recording all cases lodged with them since 1984 and it’s shocking to note that the highest number of Domestic Violence cases was recorded in 2014 with 665 reports.
Center Coordinator Shamima Ali believes that Fiji has the right legislation in place however more needs to be done.
“You can have the best of laws, we have somewhat very good legislation around domestic violence and the crimes decree but because we’re not on the same page, we interpret it differently we still bring in old traditional thoughts into it, the gender thoughts into it, those laws in a lot of cases fail women and also its gender neutral so we most probably will lobby for a review of that law.”
Ali adds that now with elections over, this is something that she hopes the Women’s groups will work towards as it’s a matter that needs to be looked into.
