81% children experienced violence in 2018 – UN Special Rep

Violence against children in Fiji is high and in 2021, 81 percent of the children were experiencing one form of violence in their circle of trust or by their caregiver.

This has been highlighted by the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary General on Violence Against Children, Dr. Najat Maalla M'jid who is in the country for a roundtable discussion with key stakeholders regarding violence against children in Fiji.

The discussion was held between the Attorney General Siromi Turaga, Minister for Home Affairs Pio Tikoduadua, Minister for Health, Dr. Atonio Lalabalavu, Assistant Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Sashi Kiran, Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Josefa Koroivueta, Minister for Lands Filimoni Vosarogo, UN Resident Coordinator Sanaka Samarasinha and UNICEF Pacific Representative Jonathan Veitch.

Dr. M'jid says preventing and ending violence makes economic sense and preliminary research done by the Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation with the support of UNICEF shows that it costs 3.9 percent of national GDP, which is huge.

She says despite many commitments and policies, the problem is that we are still not delivering and the question is how this can be done because protecting children from all forms of violence involves not only in the Ministry but all sectors and mainly communities.

Dr. M'jid says there are positive norms and cultural tradition so how that is brought on board to make sure that religious leaders and community gatekeepers became wonderful child rights defender is important and it's possible because it's already occurred in many countries such as Morocco, where she is from.

She further it is not normal to use culture to justify violence against children.

The UN Representative says you need legislation which is the legal framework because there are some forms of violence that are crimes such as raping a child and it cannot be justified by culture.

She says it is also important at the same time to change behaviour and attitude while respecting your culture and tradition.

Dr. M’jid also says that we need to take into account the intergenerational impact because it's huge when you are speaking with children who were victims of violence or were exposed to domestic violence and for them it becomes normal as a way of dealing so it becomes very difficult to estimate.

Assistant Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation, Sashi Kiran says the impact of violence on children is far more than they can measure economically.

Kiran says the government has come up with a huge commitment as it is a national issue.

She says the Attorney General has committed to table certain bills and the Education Ministry is committed to bringing counselors in schools which were removed.

She says her Ministry is working on developing a special unit for child care where there will be special child protection officers in each district.

Meanwhile, Dr. M'jid was accorded a traditional welcoming ceremony at the GPH this morning.