Qiliho to Open FWCC Workshop for Southern Division Officers

24 Jul, 2016

SUVA (24 July 2016) – A fourth workshop on gender, violence against women, human rights and the law for senior police officers will be opened by the Police Commissioner Brigadier-General Sitiveni Qiliho on Monday.

The training conducted by the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre is for top officers from the Southern and Maritime zones.

The five-day workshop will be held at the Southern Cross Hotel in Suva.

Since April, the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre in partnership with UNDP, has conducted three other training workshops for the top echelon of the Fiji Police Force. The first was with officers of the Central Division command group, followed by officers from the Western and Northern divisions.

The workshops have focused on helping officers gain an understanding of gender and the genderisation process, the dynamics of violence against women, human rights and the relevant laws such as the Domestic Violence Decree.

These milestone workshops come as the FWCC and the Fiji Police Force resume their close collaboration to help police officers understand violence against women and learn how they can appropriately and sensitively respond to women who report criminal offences against them.

Sonja Bachmann, the UN Peace and Development Advisor in Suva, said: “UNDP would like to extend its appreciation to the Fiji Police Force under the leadership of Commissioner of Police, Brigadier-General Qiliho and the FWCC for their collaboration and the continuing momentum to eradicate violence against women and girls.

“We are happy to partner with the FWCC, an organisation with decades-long experience in this field, on this important initiative,” Ms Bachmann said.

The Commissioner will open the workshop at 9.30am.