New Zealand Human Rights Commission Submission to the CAT in relation to NZ’s 6th periodic review Table 5: Service Use -National Collective of Independent Women’s Refuges Description 05/06 Number of women accessing safe house services Average length of stay in the safe house Women Numbers accessing Children advocacy services in the community Number of crisis calls received 06/07 07/08 08/09 09/10 1635 2273 23 days (women ) 20 days (wome n) 2940 women and childre n 24 days (wome n) 8930 8410 7642 7005 N/A N/A 60,565 85,794 81,720 2281 1920 1832 1930 3885 women and children 37 nights N/A 19 nights 26 days (women ) 22 days (women ) 9611 8808 9365 11,305 3565 4637 4815 7161 12,513 Women and children 41,734 47,918 49,509 52,739 58,485 10/11 11/12 12/13 Source: National Collective of Independent Women’s Refuges Table 6: Women using services: National Collective of Independent Women’s Refuges Description 05/06 06/07 07/08 08/09 09/10 10/11 11/12 12/13 Ethnicity of Pākehā 33% 37% 38% 33% 32% 43% 31% 40% women using Māori 48% 43% 47% 45% 45% 47% 50% 42% Pasifika 4% 6% 5% 6% 6% 6% 6% 7% European 4% 5% 6% 7% 7% N/A 9% N/A Asian 1% 2% 2% 2% 2% 3% 2% 3% 5% 7% 6% 7% 7% 1% 2% 8% refuge services Other/ Unknown <17 N/A 2% N/A N/A 1% 2% 1% women using 17-25 27% 25% 27% 27% 26% 27% 24% refuge 26-35 34% 30% 30% 29% 30% 30% 30% services 36-45 26% 25% 24% 24% 25% 24% 24% 46+ 13% 13% 13% 13% 14% 13% 16% 5% 6% 6% 4% 4% 5% Ages of Unknown N/A Source: National Collective of Independent Women’s Refuges 74. Despite the efforts of successive governments the continuing high level of violence against women and girls remains one of New Zealand’s greatest contemporary challenges. The continued absence of an agreed common understanding and definition of family and sexual violence and a lack of appropriate data and indicators invariably 31