15.3 Village Fono INQUIRY FINDING 38: Family violence is not explicitly listed in the Village Fono Act 1990 as an area of concern for the Village Fono. INQUIRY FINDING 39: The Village Fono is not protecting victims of family violence and in some cases preventing access to justice and increasing the environment in which family violence thrives through ill-advised punishments and blocking the reporting of matters to the police. The Report has so far considered the role of the Village Fono in preventing family violence through advocacy efforts and setting a good example through their own behaviour. However, the question of what their role should be in relation to protection in individual cases of family violence is more complex. The Inquiry did not hear of any Village Fono that regularly deals with such matters and in some cases Village Fonos require victims to report matters to them before they go to the police. This means that in many cases they are not reported at all such is the resistance to involving the Village Fono for fear of shame or retribution. This issue must therefore be considered in terms of the current situation, what the ideal role of the Village Fono may be and how to transition from where we are today to that point without putting victims at further risk. The primary consideration is that family violence is first and foremost a criminal matter and must be dealt with by the formal criminal justice system. Therefore, the role of the Village Fono must be to support that process wherever possible. That being said, there is still an active role for the Village Fono to take in matters of family violence, and in doing so carefully can play an important role in enhancing the social cohesion and harmony of their village, by helping to break the cycle of violence within families. 15.3.1 Village Fono’s role in supporting formal criminal justice “We must be mindful that the authority of law enforcement lies with police and the prosecution and that is for a couple of reasons: firstly to ensure consistency and secondly my concern is that the Village Fono would try to counsel a couple.” Lemalu Hermann Retzlaff, Attorney General of Samoa, Inquiry public hearing It is therefore important that the Village Fono must not replace the formal criminal justice system in matters of family violence for the reasons set out by the Attorney General above, and the fact that conflicts of interest are bound to arise from adjudicating on family matters within tight knit communities. The first role that the Village Fono must develop is facilitating the reporting of family matters to the police. This role is not currently being undertaken and in some cases actively prevented. Prevention of reporting happens in a number of ways and many people are reluctant to involve the Village Fono as the punishments they impose are often a significant financial burden.