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Gender training for regional police starts
Pacific police officers undergo a seminar on gender, violence against women in Nadi yesterday morning. (Contributed Photo)
NADI, Fiji—A workshop for Pacific police officers on gender, violence against women and legislation related to gender-based violence opened in Nadi yesterday morning.
Funded by the Australian Federal Police and facilitated by the Fiji Women’s Crisis Center, this is the fourth workshop in a series aimed at building understanding among police officers around the region of the dynamics of violence against women.
The training, conducted over the next two weeks, also aims to improve the skills and sensitivity of Pacific police officers in responding appropriately to female survivors reporting gender-based violence.
Thirty officers representing 11 countries are taking part in the training at Hexagon Hotel in Nadi.
Research into the prevalence of violence against women shows Pacific countries have some of the highest rates in the world.
In the introductory session, the officers spoke of the challenges of responding to violence against women and dealing with survivors in their countries.
Officers expressed a desire to understand the causes of violence against women and why women who report offenses against them often withdraw their complaints.
The officers have a broad range of experience—from a few years to long-serving officers—and work in the sexual and domestic violence units of their countries’ police forces.
One officer acknowledged violence against women and girls as an “issue that is eating up the Pacific.”
The session yesterday included learning about how the “genderization process” conditions men and women to accept and perpetuate stereotypes about what is expected of women and men, and how these contribute to gender inequality and violence against women.
The workshop ends on Friday, Nov. 18. (PR)
