A G E N C Y : V O I C E A N D I N F L U E N C E W I T H I N T H E H O M E A N D I N S O C I E T Y
Human trafficking Human trafficking is also a growing concern throughout the region. An increase in female migration in the past decade has
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FIGURE 4.14 The incidence of sexual intimate-partner violence is significantly higher in the Pacific
East Asia
Vanuatu
Tuvalu
Solomon Islands
Samoa
Marshallslands
Kiribati
Japan
Thailand
Timor-Leste
Philippines
70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
Cambodia
percentage of ever-partnered women aged 15–49 who have experienced physical or sexual intimate-partner violence
percent
the age of 15 in Vanuatu is 30 percent; and for most of these children, assaults are repetitive and carried out by family members (54 and 55 percent, respectively) (VWC and NSO 2011). In Vanuatu, the figure was 40 percent. Child prostitution in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands is an organized venture with formal and informal brothels in urban centers (UNIFEM 2010). Data also show that effects of violence are transmitted across generations. Domestic violence, and its acceptance, continues to be passed from parent to child (Fehringer and Hindin 2009). In Vanuatu, an estimated 57 percent of children whose mothers experienced violence either saw or heard the violence when it happened. Not only did these children witness the violent episodes, but many (17 percent) also experienced a beating at the same time (VWC and NSO 2011). As shown in figure 4.15, children in Kiribati who witnessed violence between parents while growing up are more likely to experience violence themselves as adults than those who did not witness violence between their parents (SPC, Ministry of Internal and Social Affairs, and Statistics Division 2010). Daughters of violent men have also been shown to be more likely to endure violence from their husbands later in life. In Timor-Leste, women whose fathers beat their mothers are more than twice as likely to experience emotional, physical, or sexual violence from an intimate partner than women whose fathers or mothers were not abusive, at 59 percent versus 24 percent (NSD, Ministry of Finance, and ICF Macro 2010). The intergenerational consequences of violence also affect child development. In the Solomon Islands, one study shows that children who witness violence are more likely to grow up very timid or withdrawn, to repeat a year or more in school, and, in many cases, to be aggressive and likely to run away from home at an early age (SPC 2009).
Pacific physical
sexual
Source: DHS reports, various years. Note: Data for Thailand are for Bangkok and Nakhonsawan provinces only; data for Japan are for Yokohama only.
FIGURE 4.15 Gender-based violence can have inter-generational consequences exposure of intimate partner violence (IPV) as an adult and exposure to violence as a child, Kiribati 2010
share of women, %
90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
mother experienced IPV
mother-in-law experienced IPV
partner was beaten as a child
experienced childhood sexual abuse
share among women who never experienced IPV share among women who experienced IPV Source: SPC, Ministry of Internal and Social Affairs, and Statistics Division 2010.
increased economic opportunities as well as increased the risk of being trafficked (ILO 2009). Human trafficking encompasses forced labor, sex trafficking, bonded labor, debt bondage among migrant laborers, involuntary domestic servitude, forced child labor, sale of children (including bride price), child