Fiji: Women are giving up on the police helping with their sextortion complaints as some of them have been pending for up to 7 years

Fiji: Women are giving up on the police helping with their sextortion complaints as some of them have been pending for up to 7 years
Depicted in this picture are the FWCC Lawyer Stephanie Dunn, Ho Selai Adimaitoga and FWCC Coordinator Shamima Ali

17-10-2022

Margaret-Elisabeth Mc Coy 

Southeast Asia & Pacific Team Human Rights Researcher 

The Global Human Rights Defence 

At the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence in Fiji, the Fiji Woman’s Crisis Centre (FWCC) raised their concerns regarding woman dropping their faith in the police in solving their cases. Some sextortion complaints that have been pending for 6 to up to 7 years but no process has been made. 

 

Stephanie Dunn, the Lawyer at the FWCC, has stated that the private addresses and phone numbers have been shared and in some cases, there were video cameras installed in their houses, instead of security cameras. The Coordinator of the organization, Shamima Ai, has also added that these videos are then used to blackmail these women. 

 

The organization has put forward submissions to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence in which they recommended for Fiji to ratify the Budapest Convention or the Convention on Cybercrime. The Head of Legal of the FWCC, Miliana Tarai, also stated in it that while having the convention ratified the government must also ensure that at the heart of the convention human rights, democracy, and the rule of law are secured for application in the future. 

 

She added that to further safeguard human rights, there also needs to be an appropriate procedure to protect these. Additionally, she added that Fiji could also adopt the Istanbul Convention which recognizes gender. As Ms. Tarai voices her opinion on that gender plays an important role in cyberspace. It can influence online behaviors as well as access to justice on gender-based sexual violence crimes such as revenge porn, sextortion, cyberstalking, and other crimes. 

 

Sources and further readings:

Baleilevuka, R. (2022, October 11). Some women have given up with the police as some of their sextortion complaints have been pending for about 6 to 7 years-FWCC, Fiji Village. Retrieved on October 16 2022 from https://www.fijivillage.com/news/Some-women-have-given-up-with-the-police-as-some-of-their-sextortion-complaints-have-been-pending-for-about-6-to-7-years---FWCC-5rx84f/