International Women's Day is celebrated in Fiji this coming Tuesday 5 March
Women and the Law:
Rights Under Written and Unwritten law
By Nazhat
Shameem
Address
at “Empowering Women to Wellness” Conference,
Suva, 14th
and 15th
February 2013
Introduction
The
welfare and health of women are bound to the mental well being of
women as much as they are to their physical health. The two are
inextricably linked. We women rarely prioritise ourselves in relation
to our own health. Brought up to multi task, to put everyone else’s
welfare before our own, we forget that our own welfare is the back
bone of the family. We are often taken for granted, yet our ill
health is capable of bringing our entire families to a standstill.
Our legal rights have a close relationship with our position in
society. Our traditions tell us that we have not always had any
rights at all. Burnt at the funeral pyres of our husbands, buried at
birth, killed in our mothers’ wombs when it was found that our
mothers were carrying girls, and strangled on the death of our
husbands, patriarchy has resulted in grave injustices for women and
girls for many centuries and in all cultures. The vote was a long
time coming, New Zealand taking the lead in giving women the vote
followed by other countries when it was impossible to stop the tide
of the suffragette movement. Yet changing the law, stating that man
and women are equal under the law, does not create equality. Equality
lies in our mind and our hearts. And there are many barriers to
equality, our cultural practices, the way we have been brought up,
the expectation that society has that we will keep our voices low
and our eyes down, and the attitudes of those who lead in our
societies. In this paper I will explore some significant changes in
the law of Fiji which are intended to empower women, and will discuss
barriers to the effective implementation of the law. The law can be
changed a thousand times, yet if the attitude of those responsible
for implementing it does not change, the law is as useful in building
a more equal society as a blank piece of paper.
Rape
laws
In
ordinary cases before the courts, no witness has less or greater
weight than any other. The only cases in which witnesses are seen to
be inherently unreliable are those involving the evidence of
witnesses who are accomplices. However for over a century in the
English legal system, the evidence of women in rape cases was
considered to be so unreliable that it was dangerous to convict a man
on the evidence of the rape victim alone. This was never in a written
law. It was a judge made law. For more than a hundred years, judges
were forced to tell juries and assessors that the evidence of a rape
victim was considered unreliable on its own and that they should look
for corroboration of her evidence, in the absence of which they
should be careful about convicting. Since it is very unlikely that
rapists will commit rape in front of witnesses, it was very rare to
get such corroboration and many people charged with rape were
therefore acquitted. Even if we are to say that the judges were wrong
to make this rule, and should leave law making to an elected
Parliament, the fact remains that generations of Parliaments failed
to unwrite the law. They let it go, causing injustice to thousands of
women who came to court expecting justice. The law was only abolished
by the Court of Appeal in Fiji in 20051,
following other countries taking that step, and by the passing of the
Criminal Procedure Decree 2009 which provides that the law on
corroboration in sexual cases is abolished2.
The reason for the reluctance is in my opinion clear. Parliaments,
all of which are dominated by men, believed as the judges did, that
women who complain of rape are probably lying. I am not saying for
one minute that women never lie about rape. But so do some women lie
about robbery and theft. So do some men, lie about trespass and
fraud. Lying is not a specifically female fault. It is a human fault
found in some people, male and female. The law of corroboration
placed all women in one category as being likely liars. It reflected
a stereotype of women, as being weak, manipulative, spiteful, and
dishonest. The consequences of such stereotyping are grave for women
all over the world. It excludes them from holding positions of
responsibility, and keeps them in a constant state of subordination
in relation to men.
The
law of corroboration was only one problem for women who were raped. A
real hurdle was being able to make a complaint at all. A real barrier
for women is lack of access to justice. If they do not earn, and are
not well educated, the act of walking to the police station to make a
complaint is arduous. Once there, they may encounter hostile and
insensitive police attitudes. In the court system, they may encounter
similar attitudes from the prosecutor and the judge. There are some
judges who mourn the passing of the law on corroboration because they
themselves believe that women are liars and are unreliable. If we are
to talk effectively about empowering women through legislative
change, we should first ask ourselves why women encounter so many
barriers to access to justice, and why so many barriers exist in the
minds of law enforcement officials. I will return to attitudes in the
course of this paper.
Although
the law on corroboration has been abolished, and the law now
prohibits the cross-examination of victims about their previous
sexual history3,
the law of recent complaint remains. This law is that although
previous consistent statements by witnesses are not admissible, in
rape cases they are used to strengthen the evidence of the victim.
The assumption is two fold; one that she needs strengthening because
she is weak as a witness; and the second that a rape victim is
expected to complain as soon a she is raped. In fact we know, as
women, that it is very difficult to talk to anyone about rape, and in
our cultures, the number of people we can discuss it with is limited.
Thus the law on recent complaint, again a judge made law, is based on
a belief that the rape victim is in a different category to other
witnesses and somehow needs strengthening.
However,
despite these remaining difficulties, there have been some major
significant changes in the law of rape. Rape was defined in the old
Penal Code as a crime against morality. In the 2009 Crimes Decree, it
is described as a sexual assault4.
This forces us to confront the fact that rape is an assault, a
criminal offence. Rape used to be defined as an offence which was
committed only against a woman by a man, and only by the penetration
of the vagina by the penis. Yet the most dreadful sexual assaults
have been committed on women and men, which have included anal
penetration by the penis, but also by sharp objects such as sticks
and iron rods. Such assaults cause lasting and painful injury, yet in
the old law, were simply described as indecent assaults for which the
maximum sentence was only two years imprisonment. They are now
defined as rape. Under the Crimes Decree5,
rape is the penetration of the vagina or anus by an object or the
penis, or the penetration of a body part with the penis. It is gender
neutral so a boy or man can complain of anal rape. The maximum
sentence continues to be life imprisonment, but the courts have set
sentencing guidelines of 7 to 10 years imprisonment for the rape of
an adult, and 10 to 16 years for the rape of children. We have
travelled a long way from the era when judges gave suspended
sentences for rape, and when reconciliation between the families
could lead to a non-custodial sentence for the rapist. The Crimes
Decree creates new offences which are not rape, but are described as
sexual assaults6.
They include forcing a person to watch obscene images for the purpose
of sexual gratification. All these offences need evidence of a
non-consensual assault. Consent was not realistically defined under
the Penal Code. However under the Crimes Decree7,
consent is broadly defined and includes consent obtained by threats,
intimidation and through the abuse of power. In the case of child
rape, children often submit to sexual intercourse because of the
power or authority held over them by the rapist. This is included in
the Crimes Decree definition of a lack of consent. In a most
significant respect the offence of rape and the offences of sexual
assault have been reformed in a positive way for victims of rape and
sexual assault. Yet the law will only be effective if those who
implement it do so in the spirit of equality and objectivity. Sadly,
this has not always been the case.
Trafficking
in Women and Children
Human
trafficking laws were a long time arriving in Fiji. Our Penal Code
only included an offence of abduction of girls under 21, and of
slavery. However, human beings have been treated as a commodity for
many generations. The blackbirders, and the organisers of the girmit
were good old fashioned human traffickers. What is trafficking in
human beings? It is the movement of people from one place to another
in order that they will be exploited or deceived. Because women and
children are the most vulnerable in society, they are most likely to
be trafficked. We now have trafficking laws in the Crimes Decree8.
The sentence for aggravated trafficking is 25 years imprisonment and
there have already been two major cases under these sections. One of
them, concluded only last week, involved the trafficking of girls
from Thailand to Fiji9.
The girls were told that they would work as masseurs. When they
arrived in Fiji, they found themselves forced to work as sex workers.
In sentencing the offenders, all foreign nationals, to terms of up to
11 years imprisonment, the High Court Judge Mr. Justice Madigan said;
“The
victims being ladies from poor families in Thailand were very
vulnerable and impressionable. They were promised very good money
for massage work in a place that was described to them as a
paradise,” living by the sea with private yachts moored nearby”;
only to arrive here and find themselves isolated, threatened and
forced to perform sexual acts against their will while living in
small hotel rooms far from the resorts described to them in
Thailand.”
It
is likely that in any further cases in the future, the judiciary will
follow the guidelines for heavy sentences in trafficking cases.
Domestic
Violence
If
there is one threat to the wellness and well being of women all over
the world, it is domestic violence. It is estimated that two women
out of three are the victims of some sort of abuse, physical or
psychological from a family member, and that domestic violence has
one of the highest figures for unreported crime in the world. Two
questions should be asked of all of us; one is; why is domestic
violence so grossly under reported when it is a criminal offence? The
second is; why are we more in danger from violence from those we love
and trust than from strangers? When I was a little girl I was warned
about not speaking to strangers and not taking sweets from them. No
one told me that our girls are in far greater danger from their
fathers, uncles and husbands, than they are from strangers. No one
told me, that when such violence does happen within the family, there
will be a massive cover up, that some members in the family will
pretend they cannot hear the sounds of blows and cries coming from
the bedroom, the bruises on their mother and daughter-in-in-law in
the morning, or the frequent sick sheets their mother would have to
produce to avoid going to work after a severe assault. No one told me
that in the rare case where a victim does complain to the police,
that the police would not be sympathetic and would not treat the
crime as a crime. No one told me that in court, almost all the
victims would say they had reconciled with the perpetrator and had
forgiven him, causing the case to be terminated and the cycle of
abuse to begin again. I wish they had told me, because when I first
experienced domestic violence cases as a young prosecutor, I had to
learn the hidden sub text of what people were saying in court. I
learnt that a woman will do anything, even put up with abuse, to keep
the family together and to ensure there is food on the table for the
children. I learnt that the words “I forgive him” means, “he is
the sole breadwinner, I still love him, I do not want him to go to
prison, and I only want him to stop beating me”. I learnt that the
court system failed in dealing with domestic violence because of
inherent judicial gender bias, and because of the inability of judges
and magistrates to read the sub text. I learnt that the police “no
drop policy” in domestic violence cases was unhelpful in cases
where the police simply did not register the complaint at all,
telling the victim to go home and sort out what the police treated as
a private issue.
Thus
the court system was a failure in dealing with domestic violence.
Other countries had experienced what we experienced, and had passed
domestic violence legislation long ago. They recognized that because
of the way patriarchy exercised power over justice systems and over
law enforcement, domestic violence cases needed a new regime to force
perpetrators to stop the violence even if the prosecution in court
was terminated because the victim did not want to give evidence. Fiji
worked on such a draft in the 1990’s. I was then the DPP and recall
the hard work that went into the draft by the Women’s Crisis Centre
and other women’s lobby groups. Yet the draft never went anywhere.
The gender bias and stereotypes which afflict judicial officers,
prosecutors and police officers also afflict parliamentarians and
government officials. Many probably believed that a man assaulted his
wife because she had done something wrong and deserved the assault.
Hidden behind that assumption was the belief that a man has the right
to punish his wife. This is at the heart of patriarchy – the belief
that a woman is subordinate to men.
It
was only in 2009 that the Domestic Violence Decree was finally
passed. I am going to deal with it in some detail, because I believe
it to be fundamental to a woman’s well being and health. Assault
and the fear of assault, sap at a woman’s physical autonomy, they
make her afraid and timid, and they take away her ability to put her
own health as an important priority.
The
purpose of the Decree, according to its title is to “provide
greater protection from domestic violence, to clarify the duties of
the police in that regard, to introduce domestic violence restraining
orders, and other measures to protect the safety and well being of
victims of domestic violence and to promote rehabilitation of
perpetrators of domestic violence and other matters”. The
Decree protects those who are victims of family violence. “Family
or domestic relationship” is broadly interpreted as “relationship
of spouse, other family member, person who normally or regularly
resides in the household or residential facility, boyfriend or
girlfriend, or a person who is wholly or partially dependent on care
and the person who provides such care”. The words “other
family member” is defined as “ parent, grandparent,
step-parent, father-in-law, mother-in-law, child, grandchild,
step-child, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, sibling, half-brother,
half-sister, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, uncle, aunt,
uncle-in-law, aunt-in-law, nephew, niece, cousin, clan, kin or other
person who in the particular circum stances should be regarded as a
family member”. This definition is broad enough to cover anyone
living at home as part of the family and includes the whole mataqali!
This is realistic. The Fijian family is not a nuclear family, and
often the most vulnerable to assault such as the live-in house girl
needs the same protection as those with blood ties.
The
Decree has several important provisions. One is the creation of the
Domestic Violence Restraining Order. The Order is not a criminal
conviction. It will not count as a previous conviction. It has one
purpose and one purpose alone. It is intended to protect the victim
of domestic violence from further violence or threat of violence, and
to protect the children of the family from any such violence or
threat of violence. What is the Restraining Order? It is an Order
made by a court (the Magistrates Court, Juveniles Court, the Family
Court and High Court) on the application of the police, or the
victim, or an interested party such as an NGO or DPP’s Office, to
stop the perpetrator from assaulting or threatening or intimidating
the victim. In some cases, the court can make additional orders of
non-contact and may order no telephone calls, no visits, and no
indirect contact through others, to ensure the safety of the family.
The Decree, which was passed to fulfill Fiji’s obligations under
CEDAW (the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against
Women), puts the safety and the well being of the victim as the
paramount concern. It also provides that cases of domestic violence
are not reconcilable. This does not mean that reconciliation is
irrelevant. It can still be taken into account in deciding whether to
lift the restraining order or in deciding what sentence is
appropriate. However the court must first ascertain whether the
reconciliation is genuine or whether there is any sort of pressure on
the victim to say that she has reconciled. The court can also make
orders to urgent monetary relief to ensure that even if the spouse
who is the breadwinner has been excluded from the family home, he
must continue to pay for the household expenses. This order is not a
permanent one. It is there to ensure that the battered spouse is not
under financial pressure to reconcile and to ask for the lifting of
the Order. All Domestic Violence Restraining Orders have the standard
non-molestation orders, and all Domestic Violence Restraining Orders
protect the children of the family even if they are not specifically
named in the Order.
What
is violence under the Decree? We tend to think of violence as
physical assault. Yet a man or woman can cause greater psychological
harm to a partner by the use of threats, or by stalking or harassing
over the telephone. The Decree says that “violence” is;
“Physical
injury or threatening physical injury, sexual abuse or threatening
sexual abuse, damaging or threatening to damage property of a victim,
threatening, intimidating or harassing, persistently behaving in an
abusive, cruel, inhumane, degrading, provocative or offensive manner,
causing the victim apprehension or fear by – (i) following the
victim; or (ii) loitering outside a workplace or other place
frequented by the victim; or (iii) entering or interfering with a
home or place occupied by the victim; or (iv) interfering with
property of the victim; or (v) keeping the victim under surveillance;
causing or allowing a child to see or hear any of the violence…..or
causing another person to do any of the acts referred to…………..against
the victim.”
So,
what is the point of the Order? It is intended to stop the violence.
It is also intended to achieve a non-violent environment to allow the
family to resolve its problems without the violence. It is not
anti-family, only anti-violence. Yet: will it be effectively
implemented? The Decree provides that the police on attending a
domestic violence case must apply for a domestic violence
restraining order. At first this was not being implemented as the
police worked to understand the ambit of the Decree. Now however, the
statistics of applications in the Central, Eastern, Western and
Northern Divisions show that they are being applied for by the
police. Considering these statistics it seems however that “violence”
is not always well understood. The rape of a child in the family is a
domestic violence case, and must lead to an application for a
restraining order. Not all of them are. However, subject to the need
for the police force to have on going training on domestic violence,
they are implementing it. The judiciary too is applying the Decree,
but my criticism of the judges is the same as my criticism of the
police. The sexual abuse cases must be accompanied by Restraining
Orders, not only to protect the victim child, but to protect the
other children of the family. The Order must be imposed at First
Call, and not only at the end of the road, at sentence. The
Sentencing and Penalties Decree 2009 also requires the Bench to treat
the sentencing of domestic violence cases differently, requiring an
inquiry into any genuine remorse and reparation on the part of the
perpetrator, and whether reconciliation is genuine.
The
implementation of the Decree depends on knowledge of its provisions,
and the eradication of a gender incompetent attitude. Both knowledge
of the Decree, and gender training must be compulsory for both
judiciary and police. I believe that such training is now compulsory
in both institutions. We cannot hope for impartiality in the
enforcement of the law, until we confront the gender biases which
exist in our own hearts. And in this women are not immune from gender
bias. After all, we bring up our sons and daughters to have these
biases.
Child
Welfare and child abuse
Child
welfare is as close to our hearts as our own welfare is. The story of
motherhood in the time of King Solomon, and the story of the adoptive
mother in The Caucasian Chalk Circle10
tell the same story of the sacrificial nature of motherhood. We would
rather give our children up then allow them to be harmed. Yet in the
area of child abuse, the picture becomes confused. There are many
mothers who do not support their own abused children, even when they
know that their husbands are the source of the abuse. Whether this is
because of conflicting loyalties, or whether it is because financial
dependency confuses our own priorities, there are many children who
have told the courts that they told their mothers about the abuse
they were suffering, but that their mothers did nothing to help them
or support them. When I was a judge, many mothers appeared in court
to give evidence in support of the abuser and against their own
children. It was important not to be judgmental about any person who
decides that the truth lies where the family income is, but as a
mother myself, I wonder how many children have become cynical and
bitter about the worldwide image of an all protecting and ever loving
mother.
How
do we define abuse? Prior to the Child Welfare Decree 2010, abuse was
never defined. Is it only physical abuse? Is corporal punishment
child abuse? When is parental chastisement a form of abuse? Is
emotional pressure abuse? Is selling your child into prostitution
abuse? Does the law protect children from all types of abuse? And, if
parents are the source of the abuse, how will the police, doctors and
welfare officers ever know that it is happening? Children do not have
easy access to justice.
Fiji
ratified in Convention on the Rights of the Child many years ago, but
one area which consistently led to a failure to respect its
provisions was the protection of child victims of abuse. Fiji needed
to consider special powers for the medical profession to report abuse
to the authorities, for the courts to remove children from the care
of their parents, and for one agency to take responsibility for all
reports of abuse. Under the old law, there was no obligation on the
police or the courts to refer a criminal case of abuse to the
Ministry of Social Welfare, and doctors hesitated to report suspected
abuse because of their ethical duty to keep patient information
confidential.
The
Child Welfare Decree 2010 has as its stated reason – “A Decree
to promote and protect the health and welfare of children through
mandatory reporting”. It creates a regime of mandatory
reporting of child abuse, it has a definition of child abuse, and it
places the duty to report abuse on doctors, dentists, welfare
officers, police officers and lawyers.
Section
4 of the Decree provides;
“Where
a professional
(a) becomes
aware or reasonably suspects during the practice of his profession,
that a child has been or is being, or is likely to be harmed; and
(b) As
far as he is aware, no other professional has notified the Permanent
Secretary under this section about the harm or likely harm;
The
professional must immediately give notice of the harm or likely harm
to such child to the Permanent Secretary in writing or by facsimile,
email or other reliable means of communication, where necessary the
professional may, subject to section 6 give oral notice under this
section”.
Abuse
then, is defined for the first time, and like the Domestic Violence
Decree, it goes beyond physical abuse. The Decree does not speak of
injury, it speaks of harm. The Decree also gives powers to doctors to
keep children in their care, under a Care and Treatment Order, if
they do not want the children to go home with the parents. This is
especially important when the parents are the suspected source of the
abuse. This gives Social Welfare enough time to take the child from
the doctor’s custody without the threat of further harm. This
regime of mandatory reporting is especially important in a country
like Fiji, where children often do not have a voice, and where
reported child abuse figures have increased significantly. Of course,
the increase in the figures of child abuse does not mean there is now
more abuse. It means that more children/doctors/lawyers/ welfare
officers are reporting abuse. This in turn puts a great
responsibility on the State to ensure that children’s needs are met
in the justice and welfare system.
In
this paper I have already referred to the fact that sentences for the
rape of children are even higher than they are for the rape of
adults. However, the sentence is passed at the end of the case. Is
our justice system able to hear the evidence of children in a way
that their youth and communication barriers are taken into account?
For a long time no laws existed to specifically allow evidence of
vulnerable witnesses to be heard in a special way. The Juveniles Act
provides for children to give evidence in a closed court where the
charge is the sexual assault of the child, but it also provided that
a person could not be convicted on the evidence of a child alone.
Over the years, the judiciary adapted the law, to try to meet the
special needs of children. The judges closed courts for children or
heard their evidence on closed circuit television or from behind a
screen, using their inherent powers. The section in the Juveniles Act
which said that there was a need for corroboration for the evidence
of children, and that children who made unsworn statements also
needed corroboration was struck down under the 1997 Constitution by
Mr. Justice Goundar in 200811.
He said that the law discriminated against children, whose evidence
should be evaluated by the courts in the same way as every other
witness.
However
the 2009 Criminal Procedure Decree for the first time acknowledged
that there are some witnesses who are considered vulnerable in the
court system for whom special steps must be taken to enable them to
give evidence without fear. Section 295 of the Criminal Procedure
Code allows for such special steps. Of all people who come into the
courts, children are most likely to benefit from this law.
Parental
Neglect
Closely
connected to the subject of child abuse, is the subject of parental
neglect and criminal responsibility. Generally speaking, the criminal
law is concerned with acts not with omissions. In other words a
failure to act is rarely criminal. An exception to this rule is the
offence of failing to supply the necessaries of life to a person to
whom you owe a statutory duty. This applies to parents. They have a
statutory duty to take care of their children and can be prosecuted
for negligence in their duties. This subject has recently been
ventilated in the media, with so many cases of children drowning.
What is the law on this subject?
Section
241 of the Crimes Decree provides that;
“ (2)
It is the duty of every person who, as head of the family, has charge
of a child under the age of 14 years being a member of his or her
household, to provide the necessaries of life for the child; and he
or she shall be deemed to have caused any consequences which
adversely affect the life or health of the child by reason of any
omission to perform the duty, whether the child is helpless or not.”
Section
240 provides;
“ A
person commits an indictable offence if-
(a) the
person makes an omission; and
(b) the
omission causes the death of another person; and
(
c ) the first-mentioned person-
(i) has
a duty to the other person in accordance with section 241;
(ii) the
omission amounts to a negligent breach of the duty, such omission is
or is not accompanied by an intention to cause death or bodily harm”.
How do these sections work? If a mother knows that a child of the
house is abused and fails to take the child for medical care, and the
child dies, the mother can be charged with manslaughter. Section 241
(which is not a new law, it was also in the old Penal Code) provides
that parents have a statutory duty to provide children with those
necessities that they need to survive. In modern Fiji, where children
die from drowning, and of injury on the roads, these provisions may
well be used by the police and DPP’s Office to prosecute negligent
parents whose negligence causes the death of their children.
Conclusion
The
well being of women, and their empowerment under the law, are closely
related. We as women, share a sense of well being, not only when we
are free of disease, but also when we are free of violence. There are
many barriers to justice for those of us who are victims of violence
and rape. Not least of these is the attitude held dear by many police
officers, prosecutors and judicial officers, that a man has the right
to chastise his wife, and that if she complains about it, it is she
who is the bad wife, not he who is the bad husband. Gender
stereotyping and gender bias obstruct the equality of justice, and
entrench in the minds of society that women are subordinate to men.
In our largely patriarchal society, these gender based attitudes
prevent women from obtaining justice. Before we convert the world, we
must first convert ourselves. As Shakespeare said in “Julius
Caesar” – “The fault dear Brutus
is not in our stars but in ourselves
that we are underlings”12.
We must bring our sons up to respect women and treat them as equals,
and we must bring our daughters up to be strong, educated and
self-reliant. Perpetuating the gender cycle of power and privilege
and of dependency and violence will only serve to subject our
daughters and daughters-in–law to the violence experienced by many
women today. And we must never relinquish our moral authority to
insist on equality before the law, and in the courts.
.
1
Sereima Balelala v. State [2004] FJCA 49
2
Section 129 of the Criminal Procedure Decree 2009
3
Section 130 of the Criminal Procedure Decree 2009 prohibits asking
victims in sexual assault cases about previous sexual history except
with the leave of the court. The questioner must show to the court
that such questions are relevant and in the interest of justice.
4
Part 12 Crimes Decree
5
Section 207 Crimes Decree 2009
6
Section 210 Crimes Decree 2009
7
Section 206 Crimes Decree 2009
8
Sections 112 and 113 of the Crimes Decree 2009
9
State v. Phanat Laojindamanee and Others Suva High
Court February 2012
10
A play by Bertoit Brecht
11
A.V v. State HAC 192 of 2008 per Goundar J.
12
Julius Caesar 1, ii, 140-141
19 comments:
It is fairly depressing to contemplate that as the Ides Of March approach, the rights of women and children in Fiji seem to have been placed on the 'back-burner' in effect. This despite all the hard work done recently with bringing our archaic laws up to a measure of contemporaneity. Without full and professional implementation by the Fiji Police Force and the Courts acting in concert with the will to ameliorate the status and standing of women and girls, we shall continue to see the escape overseas of charged rapists who blithely find a way overseas leaving their alleged victims suicidal with despair, searching for a justice which is unlikely to come their way. It is a blessed relief to know that at long last INTERPOL has come to Fiji. They are now needed to pursue these attackers who have sought refuge from the law. May their sojourn in Commonwealth and regional countries be one where they shall never feel completely at rest. We are determined that they shall have an accounting. Justice is now global for Crimes against Humanity. Rape by stalking is just one such crime.
I am really glad that the Fiji government and supporters such as Nazhat Shameem have taken the initiative to improve the rights of woman. Never before have so many rape cases been tried in our independent courts. Even the high and mighty such as R. Chaudhari are no longer above the law. What I like in particular are the prostitution provisions in the crime decree which send buyers 10 years and sellers one year to jail. Some may argue that this could be used by the prosecutor to trump up charges against opponents but I think it is a visionary provision that all countries should adopt.
Look at New Zealand for instance where prostitution has been legalised. The country falls morally apart and hundreds of under age prostitutes roam the streets. We are really lucky in Fiji that our government has stamped out these practices and you can now walk around downtown Suva without seeing a single prostitute.
@ julius
I think sex workers should not be criminalised. Its true that NZ has made sex work legal and its true that the US says that this has created more trafficking of sex workers to NZ but I think it is easier to control sex work by regulating it. Not banning it. Fiji should do this now.
The poor dont have that many options! Education is critical.. laws are good but if we are unable to educate the next generation of young then what use are the laws..Women will still be treated badly!!. Many look at prostitution as some sort evil against god. They have to feed their families! Yes families! The sexual predators (even the so called religious leaders are in this group) need to be publicly shamed and named.. I will protect my daughter but what about the poor ones exposed to the ruthless animals. Ok there is a lot of talk about laws and the like. Penile entry, etc but the fact remains that a good defence lawyer can get anyone free..yes it is a fact!! Also, We seem to talk a lot about these issues and everyone has a comment. Can anyone publish contacts, addresses, email contacts, phone numbers of people who can assist a poor young girl...Anyone?? We can talk all about the laws but the poor uneducated girls will always be abused!! Want it to stop then publish details of those that can help.. Croz, do publish some contacts because unfortunately everyone has a comment but whether they can assist is another matter!!
An interesting view Anonymous at 8.24am. However, a big however: the role of regulation must be one of a high order. Women's mental health is so closely related to their physical health and vice versa. With hiv/AIDS now a regional threat to the delivery of services in all small island-developing countries, and with the very pronounced role of religion, legalisation of prostitution poses moral hazard risk on many levels. Trafficking into this region is a growth industry. We should note the role of super yachts: their ports of call and ports of origin. The role of Border Control becomes crucial and critical. It is one thing to welcome in the conspicuously wealthy in their floating mega-palaces. Control and regulation of what they may bring with them, is quite another matter. The sum of human misery comes clothed in many guises. Not unlike the Taliban-run madrassa in Northern Waziristan, the holy exterior may be wholely other within? Osama bin Laden's residence in Abbotabad was non-descript, was it not? How many arabic speakers reside in Northern Vanua Levu?
Sorry don't agree. Shamima Ali and Verisili Buadromo are set against making prostitution legal in Fiji.
Our kids are very vulnerable to being recruited into sex work, especially in squatter settlements. It is sex workers who are doing it. Fiji should not make it legal but should come down hard on pimps and traffickers.
@ Willing to help ... Please advise anyone needing help to send a text message to 9998591.
As we see in today's torture video from Fiji, there is no law, no justice in Fiji - just savages. But one can be sure Croz W will find some excuse for it all. Cultural misunderstanding; a plot by democracy supporters; not a beating at all...?
And Ms Shameem needs to be fully investigated for her role in the coup and this terrible regime. Was she in any way, along with the illegal chief justice, involved the planning of this coup? And has she recieved any monetary reward, of any form, from this regime. This will eventually be investigated by a proper judicial system. Finally, what is her view of the savage beating of these defenceless men by the junta she supports?
@ Anonymous.. You presume too much. This incident was covered and condemned at the time, and I'll have more when more information is available.
@ Investigate her fully ... Re. the "Muslim plot", this old accusation has been answered and dismissed as alarmist nonsense many months ago. Re. payments, she does much pro bono work but her legal workshops for government departments would, I presume, be paid for. Do you think she should work for nothing? Re. the judiciary (of which she is not a member) wild accusations and threats carry no weight with fair minded people. Do you have any evidence, any evidence at all, that it is not independent? Re. her views on the manhandling incident, shown on video, why should you assume she would do anything other than condemn the beatings? I see not reason why should she make her views public on this or any other such incident? Her main role today is as a legal educator, as seen in her Woman's Day address about which, incidentally, you say nothing. You use this posting to attack the speaker and say nothing about what she says. What does that tell us? Perhaps it is you who should be investigated!
You have raised the term 'muslim plot'? Nothing about Islam was mentioned in straightforward blog you threatened in typical junta thug fashion? Do you know something you would like to share with us about some alleged plot?
And as a so called 'legal educator' are you saying Ms Shameem should not comment on the human rights abusing behaviour of regime thugs? One would have thought any 'legal educator' of integrity would immediately want to comment on such a terrible act that is now exposed internationally.
As for your view that perpetrators and others involved in this coup and the subsequent abusive regime acts should not be investigated - dream on - they will be eventually.
What garbage Junta Spin. You produce no evidence of her involvement but use this blog to attack her without any evidence.
@ investigate her fully
You could do with a bit of investigation yourself. Your IP address shows a lot of downloading of child pornography!
Vinaka Croz number noted! And message has been passed.. Thanks Again
@ More Junta spin ... If you have not heard of the supposed Muslim plots, you must not be a regular reader of the the anti-Bainimarama blogs.I suggest you look at Coup4.5 postings over the past three years, and start counting. Alternatively, write "Muslim" into the Search facility on my blog, and check them out. And where have I said abuses should not be investigated? Most readers would agree that I have constantly said abuses should be investigated, including those shown on the beating video I reported earlier in the week.
Really, what is the latest news from the...........?
Why investigate Nazhat Shameem. Remember the lady resigned when PM abrogated Constitution?
And stop pointing fingers on racial point of views.
Remember may be some terrorists are Muslims but that does not mean all Muslims are terrorists
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