A women's rights adocate in the Marshall Islands is not surprised by a US government report describing levels of domestic violence there as chronic.
The Director of Women United Together in the Marshall Islands says the last national study showed that just under 70% of women surveyed had experienced violence at some point in their lives.
Kathryn Relang says over the past 15 years the number of women affected by domestic violence has remained high.
"Just the percentage of life time physical partner violence was significantly high at about 48% and as far as these incidences being reported by these women, about 90% of them never reported to anybody the experience that they were going through."
Ms Relang says there is a need to build the capacity of first responders like Police and health care providers to appropriately address incidences of domestic violence.
