Gráfico 4.5: Pila de protocolos NTMR – BS
3.3.3. Nodo IEEE ‐ 802.16j NT ‐ RS
etc to gather data and information on gender based violence in the country. The SAFENET also works to improve services and provide assistance to victims of violence.
MWYSA has tried to change its approach in raising awareness in communities and utilize men because of equal power relations to advocate to other men on behalf of women on the issue of GBV rather than having women, who are condemned and denied the rights to speak, to instruct men what they should do.
MWYSA has used Male Advocacy in raising awareness to allow men to convince other men of the issue of GBV. The involvement of men in advocacy also balances the power relation which does not exist with women if they advocate about GBV to men. The involvement of men also assists to change other men’s mentality. The Male Advocacy initiative agrees that only men can convince other men. There are 110 men all over Tarawa who have volunteered and committed to advocating on behalf of the women on the issue of GBV and have been invited to south Tarawa to undergo training and to empower them to reach out to other men.
MWYSA has also provided training to teachers to provide counselling in schools as a method to educate and raise awareness among young students and children on ESGBV because they have room to learn new things compared to adults who have fixed mentalities about things. A new booklet on how to counsel and assist children who have experienced violence at home has recently been launched and is now distributed to schools on Tarawa.
Domestic Violence and Sexual Offences (DVSO) Unit
Kiribati is part of the Pacific Prevention of Domestic Violence Programme (PPDVP). PPDVP was an initiative of the New Zealand Aid Programme (NZAID) administered under the International Development Group of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, New Zealand Police (INZPOL) and the Pacific Islands Chiefs of Police (PICP). The programme supports and builds on previous NZAID and NZPOL support for the prevention of domestic violence in the Pacific. The programme works in collaboration with the Police Department in Tarawa, particularly the Domestic Violence and Sexual Offenses (DVSO) Unit to
KEY ACTORS
•
Ministry of Women, Youth and Social Affairs (MWYSA)•
Domestic Violence and Sexual Offences (DVSO) Unit•
Women’s Crisis Centre•
UN Women (Kiribati)•
Tetoamatoak (NGO for disabled people in Kiribati that also advocates through drama for preventing violence against people with disabilities including women.KEY PROGRAMMES
•
Women in Parliament: Only 4 women have ever been elected to Parliament.•
Women in Economy: Women are still under represented in the economy although since 2007, 50% of the women were recorded as being engaged in employment, however only one third of them occupy paid jobs•
Violence against Women: Around 68% of partnered women have been reported experiencing at least one act of physical or sexual violence or both by an intimate partner and Kiribati is by far the highest in GBV (SPC, 2010).provide ground sustained support for the development of Police Domestic violence policy, strategy, action plans, systems and training programmes. An NZPOL mentor was assigned to Kiribati to support the work (Kingi and Roguski 2011).
The establishment of the DVSO Unit in 2008, previously known as the Family and Sexual Offences (FASO) Unit led to improved awareness programmes in communities and increased the number of staff from 4 to 6 who were trained under the PPDVP. At present, the DVSO Unit has been very active in
• Conducting community policing in communities on domestic violence and sexual offences
• Continuing training its police officers on how to deal with gender based violence and laws on violence against women and human rights when policing communities.
• Setting up support stations in each of the communities on Tarawa staffed with DVSO officers to assist victims
• Providing a comfort house for victims for a night before transferring them to the Women’s Crisis Centre.
• Playing an active role in dealing with domestic violence cases and record
keeping
• Improving data collection and partnerships with assistance from PPDVP
Women’s Crisis Centre
The Centre is administered by Catholic Sisters. Victims have to go to the Police first and are then taken to the hospital for medical assistance before they are brought to the Centre as a safe house. The Centre is home to the Nuns but was transformed into a safe house for female victims in 2000. The victims
are allowed to stay at the Centre for as long as they
need to, sometimes with their children. While taking shelter at the Centre, they also receive counselling from the Sisters, which at times includes their husbands, especially if they visit the Centre and want reconciliation with their wives to return home. The Women’s Crisis Centre is privately operated by the Catholic Sisters and they share with the victims what they have. Many victims have reconciled with their husbands through counselling offered at the Centre which does not only involve the couples. The victim is
only allowed to leave the Centre when she feels she
is ready to go home and be with her husband, but if not, her case against her husband will go through the court. In other cases where women and their children
USEFUL LINKS
•
http://www.spc.int/hdp/ index2.php?option=com_ docman&task=doc_ view&gid=211&Itemid=4•
http://www.who.int/ sdhconference/resources/draft_ background_paper4b_kiribati.pdf•
http://www.unicef.org/ pacificislands/evaw.pdf•
http://www.ppdvp.org.nz/wp- content/media/2011/03/Final- Kiribati-PPDVP-Baseline-Update- 25-February-2011.pdf•
http://www.pacificwomen.org/ resources/stats/kiribati-country- plan-summary/Ethnographic Case-studies and Policy Options
87
cannot return because it is not safe, they can be sent away to be with relatives on another island or where they originally come from in order to be safe.
There is a significant need for an Action Plan that takes into account cultural and religious interventions as a form of resolving issues of domestic violence besides having the Police and other actors to assist. At the moment, the new Act is used against perpetrators as an approach to addressing GBV in the country and although this is important in addressing the issue on a national level, it has generated a lot of misunderstanding and resentment among people who have previously observed cultural and religious interventions when it comes to resolving issues such as these. The new law also prevents the reporting of violence incidences among the victims for fear of imprisonment of their partners who in most cases are the only providers of the family. Many see that although imprisonment of the perpetrators prevents the reoccurrence of domestic violence at home, it breaks up families and does not really resolve the issue of maintaining peace at home as provided for by the Family Peace Act.
The establishment of a proper counselling centre and a safe house for victims is required in Kiribati. Although the Women’s Crisis Centre plays this role, it needs to set up a proper Crisis Centre and Safe House for the victims. The Centre provides a safe house for the victims and also counselling by the Catholic Sisters but is very small and can only accommodate a few victims and because of this, many victims have to return to their relatives or their homes where they were exposed to violence.
MWYSA plays a very active role in awareness programmes and the team has become creative in their responses to people when culture is used to condone domestic violence as a crime. There is a need to conduct another Study to evaluate the effectiveness of their awareness programmes and plans on the elimination of sexual and gender based violence but this needs funding.
Caritas Australia works in collaboration with Teitoiningaina (a Catholic based Association), Alcohol Awareness Family Recovery (AAFR) and Women’s Crisis Centre to provide training to I-Kiribati women to carry out outreach programmes across the country on GBV.
The operation is part of Output 4 under the Shared
Implementation Plan administered by MWYSA. Training has just commenced and therefore is still underway, but it would be interesting to follow up on the outcome of this initiative and the role that women play in reaching out to other women in the country.
USEFUL LINKS
•
http://www.ppdvp.org.nz/wp- content/media/2011/03/Final- Kiribati-PPDVP-Baseline-Update- 25-February-2011.pdf•
http://www.spc.int/hdp/ index2.php?option=com_ docman&task=doc_ view&gid=211&Itemid=4•
http://www.who.int/ sdhconference/resources/draft_ background_paper4b_kiribati.pdfGiven the recent introduction of domestic violence as a crime and the implementation of the new law on violence against women, there is a significant need for increased awareness programmes and activities that facilitates the involvement of men, such as the male advocacy which is a volunteer initiative administered by MWYSA. It is believed that changing the mentality of men and generating more awareness on the issue will help them acknowledge and support women’s empowerment and rights, and decrease GBV in the country.