Domestic Violence Against Women in Melanesia: A Barrier to Gender Equity

• Date: 01 January 2022

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Canterbury Law Review Student Prize 2021

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AGAINST

WOMEN IN MELANESIA: A BARRIER

TO GENDER EQUITY





Domestic vio lence against w omen is a barr ier to gender equ ality which ae cts, on

average, one in t hree women. e h ighest rates of dom estic violen ce against wome n

occur in the Pac ific, in part icular, in Melanes ia, where as ma ny as 68 per cent of

women have exper ienced emoti onal, physic al and/or sexual viole nce from an inti mate

partner. Gend er-based viol ence is a complex s ubject that nece ssitates a comm itment to

exploring how ge nder has been so cially constr ucted as a result of traditional , historica l

and contempor ary influenc es. Accordingly, th is article exa mines the broad c ontours

of domestic violence against women in Melanesia through a feminist assessment of the

customary, l egal, politi cal and educat ional sectors to re veal why the system s of each

constitute f undamental barrie rs to reducing rates of domesti c violence against wome n in

the region. e a rticle subsequently pres ents possible reforms whic h could aid women by

beginning to rem ove these barrier s. While it is acknowle dged that institutio nal change is a

complex task th at requires mindsets and as sociated behaviours to b e altered, by building

on current suc cessful init iatives and con centrating on l ocal ownersh ip, the reforms

presented here in could contr ibute to social transformat ions that creat e fairer and safer

societies for Melanesian women.



Domestic violen ce agai nst women (DVAW), also know n as inti mate par tner

violence (IPV ), is one aspect of gender-ba sed violence (GBV) and a lso represents bot h

* Submitt ed as part of the LL B(Hons) progr amme at the Universit y of Canterbury. The aut hor

would like t o sincerel y thank A ssociat e Professor Nat alie Ba ird for her fa ith, cons istent

encouragement and inva luable guidance.

152 [Vol 29, 2022]

a symptom a nd cause of gender inequ ality.1 It is “glob ally recog ni[s]ed as an endem ic,

pervasive a nd widespread phenomenon”,2 due to almo st one in three women hav ing

experienced se xual and/or physical v iolence by an intimat e partner.3 In the Pacific,

this iss ue presents itself as an even m ore severe violat ion of women’s fundament al

human ri ghts because a s many as 68 per cent of women h ave experienced emotion al,

physical a nd/or sexual v iolence by an int imate pa rtner i n their li fetime.4 Th is

constit utes one of the h ighest rat es of IPV in th e world.5 As Mar tha Macint yre, a

leading Mel anesian a nd Pacific anthropolo gist, ha s noted, violence agai nst women

was identifie d over 30 years ago as being a key g ender equality iss ue in the region.6

Yet, the figures pl ainl y show that it rema ins a sig nifica nt contempora ry Pacific

concern and t hat, without f urther ded icated attent ion that moves beyond awa reness

raisin g, throu gh “long-term , systemat ic engagement of com munit ies, inst itutions

and decision-ma kers”,7 it will continue t o remain “resis tant to treat ment”.8

The Pacific Isla nds geograph ically covers 2 9 million k m2 of the Pacific Oce an, one

third of t he Earth’s surf ace.9 Its “sea of islands” com prises 20,000 to 30,0 00 islands

and atoll s divided bet ween 22 Paci fic Island cou ntries and t errito ries (PICTs),10

which have a combi ned land ar ea of approxim ately 551,00 0 km2,11 and a combi ned

population of a round 12.3 mi llion people who s hare bet ween them a fif th of the

world’s languages.12 The re gion’s diversit y, however, also applies to gender i ssues

which var y according to t he geographic locat ion of PICTs and the “level of economic

development, socia l and cul tura l norms and va lues, populat ion, mig ration and

emigrat ion, religion, media, le gal institut ions, level of education, polit ical cli mate,

1 Charlot te Anne Taylor “ Domestic violenc e and its preva lence in Small I sland Developi ng States

– South Paci fic region” (2016) 1 PJR H 119 at 119; and Au sAID, Oce of Deve lopment Eectivene ss

Violence Against Women in Melanesia and East Timor: Building on Global and Regional Promising

Approaches (Commonweal th of Austra lia, 2008) [A usAID] at VI I.

2 Chri stine Forster “En ding Domestic Viole nce in Pacific Island C ountries: The Crit ical Role of

Law” (2011) 1 2(2) APLPJ 123 at 1 25.

3 World He alth Orga nisation “ Violence agai nst women” (9 March 2 021) <www.who.i nt>.

4 Regiona l Rights Resour ce Team and the Pacific C ommunity Referen ce Guide for the Judiciary

when Adjudi cating Cases of Dom estic Violence (2 018) at 9.

5 Pacific Commu nity Women’s Eco nomic Empowerm ent in the Pacific: R egional Overv iew (2017) at 7.

6 Christ opher John Meibusch “Sout h Pacific domestic violen ce legislation: Wha t changes could

encourage v ictim s to report do mestic vio lence? The case for refo rm – Samoa , Kirib ati and

Solomon Isla nds” (LLM Thesi s, The Universit y of the South Pac ific, 2019) at 34.

7 AusAID, ab ove n 1, at 62.

8 Nicole George Gender violence in the Pacific Islands: Linking women’s security and women’s

participation (Inquir y on human ri ghts issues c onfronti ng women and gir ls in the Indi an Ocean

– Asia Paci fic region, Subm ission 39) at 1.

9 Yvonne Underh ill-Sem Gender, culture and the Pacific (United Nation s Development Pro gramme ,

Asia-Paci fic Human Deve lopment Report Bac kground Pap ers Series 2010/05 , December 2011) at 5 .

10 Epeli Hau’ofa “O ur Sea of Island s” (1994) 6(1) The Cont emporary Pa cific 147 at 152.

11 Underhill -Sem, above n 9, at 5.

12 Paci fic Communit y Statis tics for Development D ivision “202 0 Pacific Isla nds Populat ion Poster”

(22 Septemb er 2020) <https://sdd.spc. int>; and Universit y Languages Por tal Austra lia “Pacific

Languages” <htt ps://ulpa.edu.au>.

Domestic Violence Against Women in Melanesia: A Barrier to Gender Equity

153

and envir onment” in PICTs .13 Simil arly, both the h istorica l impacts of colonisation

and the moder n forces of global isation i mpact gender roles di erently across t he

region.14

This unders tanding ther efore gives rise to the cave at that generalisa tions about

the region i n respect of, for exa mple, DVAW, would be flawed.15 Accordin gly, this

research con centrates on t hose PICTs formi ng the heter ogeneous sub-reg ion of

Melanesia , namely Fij i,16 Solomon Island s, Papua New Gu inea, Vanuat u and New

Caledonia .17 New Caledoni a will, however, not feature i n detail due to its s tatus as a

non-independent PICT regu lated by French laws wh ich has given rise t o few shared

attribu tes between it and other Mel anesian countr ies.18 The reason for the focus on

Melanesia , rather tha n Polynesia or Micronesia, s tems from per sonal interest, t he

availa bility of i nformat ion and the st atistic s, which show th at most of the hi ghest

rates of DVAW occur in Mela nesian countrie s.19

The purpose of t his paper is t o examine the fund amenta l barrier s to reducing

DVAW in Melanesia and to pr esent potentia l reforms t hat could aid women by

begin ning to rem ove these bar riers. Par t II wi ll therefore fir st describe t he

feminis t lens that ha s been applied to t his paper, as wel l as concepts of rel evance

to the themes of gen der and violence, most notabl y GBV, domestic violenc e and IPV,

and their l inks t o gender inequa lity. Then, in P art II I, Melanesia’s hi story a nd the

prevalence of DVAW in the reg ion will be explored. Pa rt IV subsequently exa mines

the custom ary, lega l, politic al and educ ational ba rriers t hat consti tute the r oot

causes of the pro blem, with t he conclusion of each ba rrier’s assessment providi ng

the just ification for the presentat ion of reforms designed to a id in reducing rates of

DVAW in Melanesia.

A final poi nt to note is t hat women of colour have a rgued that “ today’s whit e

middle-cla ss feminist s cannot apprec iate the needs of, c annot represent a nd cannot

13 M Sen iloli, L Taylor and S F ulivai “Gender i ssues in environ mental susta inabilit y and poverty

reduction i n the community : social and commun ity issues” in Develop ment Studies Network

(ed) Wom en, Gen der and Developme nt in the Pacific: Key Iss ues – Women, Legal Issu es and Human

Rights (Austr alian Natio nal Universit y, Canberra , 2005) 44 at 44.

14 Governa nce and Socia l Development Resou rce Centre Gender in the Pacific Islands (2008) at 1.

15 Underhil l-Sem, above n 9, at 4 .

16 Law Commission Co nverging Cu rrents: Cus tom and Human Ri ghts in the Pac ific (NZLC S P17,

2006) at [2.6]. F iji is commonl y labelled as a Mel anesian cou ntry due to t he physical appe arance

of indigenou s Fijians, but it shou ld be noted that Fijia n culture als o has many simil arities to

Polynesian culture.

17 Tony Crook, Sue Fa rran and E milie Röell Understanding Gender Inequality Actions in the Pacific:

Ethnographic Case-studies and Policy Options (European Comm ission, Oct ober 2016) at 172.

18 David A Chappell “ Frontier E thnogene sis: The Case of Ne w Caledon ia” (1993) 4(2) Jou rnal of

World Histor y 307 at 307.

19 Reg ional Righ ts Resource Tea m and the Paci fic Communit y, above n 4, at 9.