Ilaisa Kauyaca, Member of Parliament, in a Youth Parliament Mock sitting raised critical concerns about the broader systemic issues that have enabled gender-based violence and discrimination for decades.
Kauyaca says he will not hold back in calling out the entrenched societal structures that have fostered silence and inaction in the face of violence, particularly against women, girls, and gender non-binary people.
He says people have lived for so many years in error, where they have become silent to speak the truth — where we see violence, but we step back because of the system we have been embedded in.
He also pointed to alarming statistics, stating that Fiji has twice the rate of domestic violence compared to other nations, particularly small island states.
Kauyaca says domestic violence has become a norm that has sadly been accepted in many communities, underpinned by patriarchal and colonial legacies.
He called for justice, rights, and liberation for all, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or age, and stressed the need to confront the root causes of inequality.
Kauyaca concluded by urging Parliament to go beyond programme approval and tackle the underlying systems that marginalise vulnerable groups — especially women, girls, and non-binary individuals, and called for unity in creating a more just and equitable Fiji.
@fijivillage.com Kauyaca calls out systemic roots of domestic violence #fiji #fyp
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