Minister for Women Rosy Akbar says there is a lack of appropriate or adequate response from the Fiji Police Force to the instances of violence against women.
Speaking at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the
Ministry and the Fiji Police Force, Akbar says the Ministry has been inundated with complaints from women who have sought help from police only to be turned away or having their complaints minimized or even blamed for their own victimization.
Akbar says there have also been instances of perpetrators acting with impunity and coming back to assault and intimidate victims and police are not responding.
She says all this is going on despite the proclamation of the Domestic Violence Decree, the No Drop policy for cases of Domestic Violence and additional resources and training for Police.
“In essence by individual police failing to act, failing to protect and dissuading complaints they are telling women the violence they have to ensure is “Normal and Not Serious.” This is not good enough for our Fiji women.”
Acting Commissioner of Police Brigadier General Sitiveni Qiliho admitted there are shortfalls within the organization on the implementation of policies such as the No drop Policy however it is something they are vigorously addressing through training at the Fiji Police Academy.
He says the training also focuses on gender sensitizing of our officers so they are able to provide the right service.
Qiliho says Police will draw up a Standard Operation Procedures which will be distributed to the station level for every police officer to understand the roles they have to play while receiving any complaints on sexual offences.
