NEWS RELEASE: Third Pacific Executive Police Training on Gender Based Violence and Human Rights
20 Nov, 2017
NADI, Fiji (20 November 2017) – Twenty Senior Police Officers from seven Pacific countries are attending a 5-day workshop on gender, violence against women and human rights in Nadi this week.
This is the third workshop for regional executive-level police officers facilitated by the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre (FWCC) in partnership with the Australian Federal Police (AFP), Canberra. It builds on four previous training sessions funded by the AFP with frontline police officers from across the Pacific to improve policies and responses to cases of violence against women.
The participants include Senior Executive Pacific Police Officers from Tuvalu, Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Samoa and Vanuatu and a National AFP representative for the first time.
The workshop targets officers who are able to influence change in their frontline response to survivors of violence against women and to bring perpetrators to justice.
Shamima Ali, FWCC Coordinator and Ofa Guttenbeil Likiliki from the Tonga Women’s and Children’s Crisis Centre (TWCCC) are facilitating the five-day workshop at the Sofitel Resort, Denarau in Nadi.
“With rates of violence against women in the Pacific being among the highest in the world, police officers are key partners in eliminating the problem because they are the ones women turn to first for protection, Shamima Ali said.
“So this workshop is crucial for Officers to understand the gender dynamics and power relations in cases of violence against women and should help the officer’s critique and develop policy and procedures to respond to such cases,” Ali continued.
The workshop also aims to examine the links between policing and human rights, with the hope that the participating officers will contribute to putting in place procedures that will uphold human rights and provide justice for survivors of gender based violence.
At the conclusion of the workshop (Friday 24 November), the officers will develop action plans that will enable them to implement their learning during the week on how to improve their response to survivors of gender based violence.
The series of workshops with regional police officers is part of the Australian Federal Police’s Pacific Police Development Program Regional (PPDP-R), an Australian Government initiative supporting a broad range of police development activities throughout the region.
Representing the Australian Federal Police (AFP) at the workshop are Federal Agents, Vanessa Stone and Stuart Campbell who will also facilitate sessions on Policing of gender based violence