Pacific Island leaders are united in their commitment to eradicate sexual and gender based violence and confirmed this commitment in the Pacific Leaders Gender Equality Declaration this year in Cook Islands at the 43^rd Pacific Forum Leaders Meeting.

The Secretariat of the Pacific Community is an international organization made up of 22 Pacific Island countries and territories and 4 metropolitan founding members.  It provides a range of services to its Pacific island country and territory members in health, geosciences, agriculture, forestry, water resources, disaster management, fisheries, education, statistics, transport, energy, ICT, media, human rights, gender, youth and culture.  In the areas of gender equality, culture, youth and human rights it provides support for the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) focusing on improving legal frameworks and policies, capacity building and technical assistance to strengthen gender mainstreaming and gender statistics and works to build the capacity of civil society to advocate for gender equality and the advancement of all women.

“Violence against women and girls is all too common in the Pacific region. You may be familiar with the statistics: 66% of women in Fiji, 68% in Kiribati, 67% in Papua New Guinea, 46% in Samoa, and 64% in Solomon Islands have been victim of violence as reported in studies carried out jointly with these governments and development partners including SPC. Violence against women and girls also costs Pacific Island economies millions of dollars and takes a heavy toll on their health systems. Indeed, its far reaching impact on society in general undermines development efforts.  By recognising and addressing the issue in it all its forms, I believe we can improve the way we work and the effectiveness of what we do. “Dr. Jimmie Rodgers, Director General, SPC in his 2012 IDEVAW message to SPC staff.

SPC is in the front line of the campaign - 16 days of Activism, assisting Pacific Island countries to SAY NO to violence, stating clearly that violence in any form is unacceptable, intolerable and a violation of human rights.