“We are now 30 years into the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women and had it not been for Women United Together Marshall Islands (the national women’s organization), the Marshall Islands would still be very much in the dark as to its obligations under existing conventions and protocols,” Marshall Islands Sen. Tony deBrum, a former cabinet minister, said Friday. DeBrum said the government needs to be more engaged in the issue.
He is attending a Secretariat of the Pacific Community-sponsored regional parliamentarians consultation on human rights issues relating to women and parliamentary action in Brisbane from Dec. 14 to 18.
A survey released in Majuro last week by a College of the Marshall Islands student reported that of 328 students interviewed, nearly half said they had experienced physical violence, while about 23 percent said they had suffered sexual violence.
College student Scott Keju conducted the survey as an assignment for an English course. “I furthered my learning by beginning this project to help better understand alcohol use,” he said. “I believed there was a relationship between alcohol and domestic violence.” Four out of ten students said they had missed classes or assignments because of violence and about the same number said that alcohol was involved in violence they experienced.
The parliamentarians’ conference in Brisbane is organized by the SPC’s Pacific Regional Rights Resource Team. It will focus on legislative reform needed to address violence against women, and also address a potential regional human rights mechanism.
DeBrum said there was “apathy” in the Marshall Islands to the problem of violence against women and family violence, and that legislators needed to address the issue.
After a briefing with local women’s groups prior to departing for the Brisbane meeting, deBrum said: “I think I now realize how far back we are as a society and a country, in trying to deal with this very real violation of human rights which permeates every aspect of our lives.”
Community and legislative apathy “contribute to the widespread blindness to the problem,” deBrum said.
DeBrum said he will extend an invitation for the next parliamentarians’ meeting on violence against women and related human rights issues to be held Majuro. “I think that bringing such a meeting down to the ground level, up close and personal, will serve as a much needed catalyst in moving our efforts along,” he said.
