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Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre Position on Abortion |
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The Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre supports the legalisation of safe abortions for women, on request. We believe that having an abortion is a choice made by each individual for profound personal reasons that no man or state should judge. Women must have this option because it is their right; abortions continue regardless of it being illegal in Fiji: rich women get safe abortions while poor women continue to obtain backdoor abortions which are often botched, and in many cases prove fatal or cause permanentphysical damage and trauma. Decriminalising abortions means safe abortions, informed requests and pre and post abortion counselling available to all women regardless of age, race, class or religion. Our family planning and sex education efforts are inadequate and inaccessible and creates a situation where unwanted pregnancies arise: then the state and society criminalise women who do something about it. Women do not use abortion as a means of contraception and no country in the world where abortion has been legalised has shown a marked increase in abortion rates. Abortion is often the most moral choice in a world that frequently denies women healthcare, housing, education and economic survival. |
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Domestic violence - whose responsibility? |
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by the Fiji Women's Crisis Centre If it were between countries, we'd call it war. If it were a disease, we'd call it an epidemic. If it were an oilspill, we 'd call it a disaster. But it 's happening to women and its just an everyday affair. | A woman is in hospital with severe burns after setting herself alight. The attempted suicide was the result of an inability to cope with the constant domestic violence that she was subjected to by her husband - December 1998. | | A young mother is currently in critical condition in hospital as a result of domestic violence. She and her children were starved and physically abused but the case against her husband will not proceed until she is discharged. This could take many months and her health has deteriorated so badly, that she may be in danger of losing her life. In the meantime her husband is free to enter her hospital room to pressurise her to drop charges and give him custody of their children - November 1998. | | A man knifes his wife to death outside a public hospital full view of hospital staff and patients - September 1998 | | A man cuts off the ears of his de-facto wife with a razor blade and then repeatedly punches and kicks her. After the incident the 18 year old woman hangs herself - September 1998. | | A woman is unable to move on her own after a vicious attack by her father-in-law. He slashes her with a knife at least 10 times, leaving her without an arm and severely damaging her leg - September 1998. | | A 26 year old teacher is now a quadriplegic and in a rehabilitation centre following years of domestic violence. She will no longer work again and is literally being left to waste away. There is funding available for her to obtain medical treatment overseas but doctors are claiming that this would be a waste of resources and have refused to release her for overseas treatment - March 1998. | These cases are very real and all of them have occurred in Fiji over the last few months. Such cases do not reflect the full extent of the problem of domestic violence in Fiji. Many cases remain unreported and will continue to remain behind closed doors as long as society continues to regard domestic violence as normal, or to dismiss it as a private or cultural matter. If these very same crimes occurred outside the 'sanctity of the home' the hue and cry would be unimaginable. As long as domestic violence is tolerated publicly; is not recognised as a specific crime in law; is legitimised by custom and blamed on the victim herself, the crime of domestic violence will continue unabated, and many women and children in Fiji will continue to suffer gross violations of human rights within their homes. |
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The links between domestic violence and homicide |
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by the Fiji Women's Crisis Centre Global studies prove that there is an undisputed correlation between domestic violence, murder and suicide. Two studies conducted in New South Wales between 1968 and 1986 (Wallace, 1986, Bonney 1988) showed that 42.5% of all homicides occurred within the family; nearly one in four killings were spouse killings and nearly three quarters of these spouse killings were committed by men on their partners. The first study also revealed that prior incidents of domestic violence and assault had occurred in nearly half of all spouse homicide cases, almost always by the man. In Fiji, the instances of domestic violence related homicides and suicides have reached disturbing new heights. Consider the following cases which were reported by Fiji's daily newspapers between 1998 and March 1999: |
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The Health and Development Consequences of Violence Against Women |
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by the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre 23 December 1998 In Suva, on Tuesday 22nd December, a mother of 4 young children died at a local hospital. Her immune system did not have enough resistance to fight off the tuberculosis which she had developed. In fact, she had been subject to continuous abuse and starvation until she was bedridden and then removed from her home by the Police. The alleged abuser is her husband. In Nabouwalu the day before, a 26 year-old woman died as a result of damage caused to her spleen caused by an assault. The alleged abuser is her defacto husband. These are just two extreme cases which have come the fore. Everyday, women all over Fiji suffer in a whole range of ways as a result of domestic violence. These assaults have become an accepted part of our everyday lives. It is not very often that we look at the costs of these “private, domestic matters” not just to women’s and children’s health but to our society as a whole. Violence against women exists in most societies and is gaining increasing recognition as a human rights issue, as a reproductive health issue, and as a developmental issue that affects not just women themselves, but society as a whole. Let us consider the direct and indirect costs of violence against women and children on victim/survivors as well as the community at large. |
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