Shania Shayal Prasad 
Women and girls are increasingly facing various forms of violence, including online abuse, misogynistic hate speech, sexual harassment, image abuse, and grooming by predators.
This has been highlighted by UN Resident Coordinator to Fiji, Dirk Wagener while speaking at the launch of the phase two of the Pacific Partnership to End Violence against Women and Girls in Suva yesterday.
The UN Resident Coordinator to Fiji states that these issues are deeply rooted in a patriarchal context where violence serves as a mechanism of control over women.
“Violence against women, however, is just the tip of the iceberg of this underlying social problem, which develops in a patriarchal context where violence functions as a mechanism of control over women.”
He adds this pervasive violence not only harms the physical and mental well-being of women and girls but also limits their participation in society.
“The discrimination, violence and abuse targeting half of humanities comes at a steep cost. It limits women’s and girls’ participation in all walks of life, denies their basic rights and freedoms and blocks the equal economic and sustainable growth our world so desperately needs.”
In response to these challenges, the stakeholders are calling for transformative actions that end violence against women and girls.
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