JOHN HOUANIHAU
Studies have found that 78 percent of child abuse perpetrators were immediate family members.
Dr Natasha Khan a Human rights defender in Fiji, and also the current Chair of the Pacific Human Rights Defenders’ Network said at the recently concluded human rights defender (HRD) workshop in Honiara.
Natasha said the findings were made possible through research they conducted in 2019 for the Department of Women and Children in Fiji regarding the causes relating to child abuse and violence.
She highlighted the matter when she responded to a question raised by one of the USP-SI students on the rise and the cause of increased rape cases in the country.
According to Khan, she said that they found two major reasons for child abuse or sexual violence across the board.
“One is the opportunity- the perpetrator had the opportunity and accessibility to the child and Two is the security, perpetrators knew that they would get away with it or they did not know what abuse is,’’ she said.
Khan said that there is a common assumption that the stepfathers or strangers are bad.
“The assumption in our minds that stepfathers and strangers are bad yet it’s the ones inside our home, the homes,’’ she said.
“78% of the perpetrators were immediate family members, grandfathers, fathers. The majority of them are brothers, fathers, grandfathers. Stepfathers only make up 7.5%,’’ said Khan.
She said that it is something the Solomon Islands could also look at in terms of conducting research and providing data on the ground to find out the root cause of increased child abuse, especially rape in the country.
“So, this is something the Solomon Islands can look at, like collecting data and doing some research, something similar to find out what causes child abuse in the community,’’ she said.
