Source: Radio New Zealand
The head of Women’s Refuge is disappointed but not at all surprised by the latest data. 123RF
Warning: This story contains content some may find disturbing.
There are calls for a public awareness and education campaign about domestic violence, after fresh data has revealed its prevalence around the globe.
A new report from the World Health Organisation has found a quarter of women have been physically or sexually abused by a partner.
It shows there’s been no improvements in that statistic in the last two decades.
In Australia and New Zealand, 24.5 percent of women have been sexually or physically abused by a partner.
The head of Women’s Refuge, Ang Jury, is disappointed but not at all surprised.
“Until such time as men realise that they don’t own their women, nothing’s gonna change,” she said.
Jury said big societal shifts have been achieved before in Aotearoa, like attitudes towards smoking and drink driving.
But part of that shift was long-lasting, expensive public campaigns. She wants to see something similar – “long running, sustained action” – for domestic violence prevention.
“It would have to be a bipartisan thing, with the understanding that nothing is gonna change overnight.”
In the mid-2000s, the “It’s Not Okay” campaign advertisements beamed into living rooms across the country.
University of Auckland professor Janet Fanslow, who’s researched violence for nearly 40 years, said it was brilliant.
“At the beginning it was not only the national campaign around the messaging and building the understanding, but that campaign was actually backed with 150 community-based prevention projects. And then we let it drop.”
Fanslow advised the World Health Organisation on interpreting and analysing data for the report.
She said to force change in New Zealand, a similar nationwide campaign is needed, underpinned with well-resourced advocates educating people about things like power in relationships.
Fanslow said in some places overseas, those community programmes saw intimate partner violence drop by 50 percent in four years.
“It’s huge, and it’s fast,” she said.
“We often talk about it as an intergenerational problem, but I think what we actually mean is that we need intergenerational funding to implement it consistently across whole populations, long enough to get the change in behaviour that we would really like to see.”
Political reaction
Politicians on either side of the aisle agreed the statistics were horrific – and that a bipartisan approach was the way forward.
“Fully agree, and that’s why we have continued the previous government’s programme that they put in place,” said Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
That’s called Te Aorerekura – a 25-year strategy to eliminate family and sexual violence, with a series of shorter-term action plans.
The minister for family and sexual violence prevention, Karen Chhour said the government’s second action plan has accomplished all its early milestones, like improving multi-agency responses, expanding access to safety programmes for survivors, and extending rehabilitation support for prisoners on remand.
“In recent years there has been an increase in reporting, meaning more people are aware these behaviours are unacceptable and are seeking help,” she said.
Chhour encouraged anyone experiencing family or sexual violence to seek help.
Labour’s family and sexual violence prevention spokesperson Helen White said there were emerging challenges to deal with.
“We have a really strong wind of misogyny coming through our social media, and it is really taking its toll on the way that young people think about their sexual relationships,” she said.
White believes change starts with young people.
“Education is absolutely key. We do need to make sure that this is cross-party, we should be able to cooperate on something like this. It’s huge.”
Family Violence
Sexual Violence
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand