50 women pass away from domestic violence in the past 10 yrs

50 women in Fiji were allegedly murdered by their partners or killed due to domestic violence in the past 10 years.

While speaking during the candlelight vigil to remember the survivors and victims of domestic violence held at the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre Headquarters in Suva, FWCC Coordinator Shamima Ali says those are the numbers that are being reported but for them, they hear cases where parents and neighbours come and tell them that the victims were tortured and burned to death.

She says they have been hearing this for years and if people look closely, it would be more than the reported numbers.

Ali says in the first four months of this year, they saw about 860 women and from that number, 560 were for domestic violence, while others were for child rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment.

She adds 365 new cases of domestic violence have also been registered with them which signifies that they see about 90 women in month.

She is also calling on the government and policy makers to look into this and work with the different organisations to put together a policy that will see change happening.

The candle light vigil held last night was to remember the two women in Labasa that were allegedly murdered by their partners last month.

A number of supporters and family members of victims turned up at the FWCC Headquarters to pay their respects to their loved ones.