project and to seek their agreement to participate. All Village Councils of the 6 six villages agreed and straight away established their Village Family Safety Committees (VFSC). Phase 2 of the Pilot is also completed. During this Phase, the 6 selected VFSCs went through capacity building workshops and developing of their Work Plans by the Office. The Work Plans outlines various family violence issues in each village with identified activities/programs catered specifically to address these issues. The Office is now finalizing these work plans and then proceed to launch them. Findings and overall lessons learned from these workshops is detailed in the Office’s State of Human Rights Report 2020. For the purposes of the Annual Report, we would like to highlight some important findings of the workshops include: 1. Deeply rooted mindsets and behavioral norms continue to exist which is a grave concern. Some of these mindsets and behavioral norms includes: a. Women’s clothing: At least one or two male participant asserted, that the act of women wearing what they would define as inappropriate clothing around them, is a form of violence or abuse towards them, as men. Some claimed that - “My eyes are being abused” – “Ua sauaina o’u mata”. This mindset reinforces the attitude of victim-blaming and the myth that a woman’s clothing provokes sexual abuse and violence toward her. It further reinforces the notion that women must monitor their clothing and what they are wearing, to ensure they are not provoking or ‘causing’ the abuse toward them (men). b. Victim blaming: Women are blaming themselves for men seeking satisfaction elsewhere by having inappropriate sex with other women and raping young girls. This confirms that victim blaming exists within the mindsets of victims themselves reinforcing the notion of entitlement for men and further complicates interventions and approaches to eliminate violence. c. Physical Abuse of Children: There was overwhelming evidence of child abuse. One father shared, “I use a fagaau (hose) to beat my children and I believe it is the best way to bring them up, they listen to me and stay out of trouble”. Another participant shared, “I don’t have children of my own, but I beat my nephews all the time. Last week, I beat him until I ran out of breath, and he could not walk. I rested, caught my breath and beat him again”. These attitudes of parents in beating their children reaffirmed that “Being smacked as a child made me into the good person I am today” and “it didn’t do me any harm” (Myth 10 Inquiry Report refers). Many parents shared that beating was the only way known to them to discipline their children “Pau a lea o le auala…e faakogu ai kamaiki gei”. They justified this by arguing that they have exhausted all other options including talking to their children Physical and emotional abuse of children contributed to a cycle of rebellious behavior amongst youth that parents commonly complain about. PARENTING APPROACHES CONTINUES TO BE A CHALLENGING ISSUE THAT NEEDS TO BE FURTHER RESEARCHED AND EXPLORED IN RELATION TO FAMILY VIOLENCE. 2. Phase 2 highlights three important elements for the overall success of the Pilot Project and its ability to initiate and sustain long term change: Office of the Ombusman/NHRI Samoa Annual Report 2019/20 21