32% PREVALENCE RATE OF VIOLENCE TOWARDS PACIFIC WOMEN Pacific, such as Sāmoan fa’afafine, and the SOGIESC section of this Talanoa paper discusses the human rights of Pacific people who identify with Pacific gender identities. The rights of women both in Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific is emerging as an ongoing matter of concern for Pacific families and communities. Issues Violence against women is recognised in international law as a violation of human rights.50 Research has revealed the following statistics about violence towards Pacific women.51 The Health Quality and Safety Commission’s Family Violence Death Review Committee reported that rates of Pacific peoples as both fatal victims and perpetrators of intimate partner violence deaths in Aotearoa New Zealand were 0.35 and 0.62 per 100,000 people per year respectively. These rates were higher than those for non-Māori and nonPacific people.52 The Ministry of Social Development’s latest report on the Profile of Pacific Peoples noted that 13 percent of Pacific women and 8.1 percent of Pacific men reported having ever experienced sexual violence.53 Pacific students were three times as likely as New Zealand European students to report witnessing adults hit children in their homes and 3.5 times as likely to report witnessing adults hitting other adults 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 4 out of 63 WOMEN KILLED BY INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE BETWEEN 2009 AND 2012 WERE PACIFIC in their home.54 Six percent of women accessing the services of Women’s Refuge identified as Pacific.55 In 2012 the Ministry for Social Development produced “Nga vaka o kaiga tapu- A Pacific Conceptual Framework to address family violence in New Zealand” (Nga Vaka).56 Within this framework seven Pacific cultures (Cook Islands Māori, Fijian, Niuean, Samoan, Tokelauan, Tongan and Tuvaluan) each have their own culturally specific frameworks for addressing family violence. These frameworks define and explain meanings of family, violence, and key concepts and principles that promote family wellbeing without changing the essential meanings from each of the seven ethnic groups. In the 2018 CEDAW Committee’s review of Aotearoa New Zealand’s treaty obligations, the Committee made several recommendations to prevent violence against women in Aotearoa. One of the recommendations made to the New Zealand Government that are relevant to Pacific women was “that criteria and guidelines be adopted for the provision of victim-oriented and culturally appropriate legal, psychosocial and economic assistance that recognize the special needs…women and girls belonging to ethnic minority groups.”57 There was also a recommendation by the CEDAW Committee that collecting of data regarding violence against women be improved, and that women’s refuges be available for women from ethnic minority groups within Aotearoa New Zealand.58 “UN Human Rights Treaties”, May 2013, by Stop Violence Against Women A project of The Advocates for Human Rights. Fanslow J, Robinson E, Crengle S, Perese L. Juxtaposing beliefs and reality: Prevalence rates of intimate partner violence and attitudes to violence and gender roles reported by New Zealand women. Violence Against Women. 2010; 16(7): 812831. Health Quality & Safety Commission, “Family Violence Death Review4th annual report2013, pg 17. Pasefika Proud, Ministry for Social Development, 2016, “The profile of Pacific peoples.” p17. Ibid. Women’s Refuge; “Statistical Report 2014-2015” pg 24. http://www.pasefikaproud.co.nz/assets/Resources-for-download/PasefikaProudResource-Nga-Vaka-o-Kaiga-Tapu-MainPacific-Framework.pdf. 19