31 Jul 2009

Agencies urge women's issues be discussed at Pacific Islands Forum

6:09 am on 31 July 2009

Violence against women and more gender balanced political representation are two issues of concern to international agencies in the Pacific.

Participants at the second annual Pacific Gender and Development Partners Meeting held recently in Fiji have agreed to recommend these topics be discussed at the Pacific Islands Forum leaders Meeting.

The Secretariat of the Pacific Community Human Development Adviser, Treva Braun, says barriers to equal rights for men and women are complex.

"Violence against women again is linked in. If women obviously are suffering violence, they don't have access to any number of social and political and economic opportunities. So these things are very much all inter-linked."

Treva Braun says on average in the Pacific region only about four per cent of politicians are female meaning national policy and law making bodies don't have the voice of women.