Troubling statistics of women facing barriers whilst trying to gain access to the formal justice system was revealed by the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement in Suva today.
This was revealed by a research project that was undertaken by the FWRM.
Balancing the Scales: Improving Fijian women’s access to Justice research project revealed that the number of divorces, maintenance and restraining order applications filed in the Family court have all increased in the last five years.
In 2016, 1631 cases of maintenance were filed of which 1471 were filed by women while 3445 restraining orders were also filed.
Sexual offense cases filed in the last five years was also troubling.
2013 topped the cases before the courts with 2036 cases.
The Research information that was launched today also laid out recommendations to assist the justice system to improve access they provide to women.
