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Men work to end violence against
women in the Pacific
 Men
are increasingly speaking out against violence against women, a
trend that the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), Pacific
Island governments and the wider international community present at
the 53rd UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW53) in New York
are supporting and discussing in commemoration of International
Women’s Day (IWD, March 8).
There are positive signs that men in the Pacific are seizing the
opportunity to play an increased role in ending violence against
women. In Samoa, for instance, a national plan is being developed to
support programmes involving the Men Against Violence Advocacy
Group.
Global examples the Pacific region can draw upon include the White
Ribbon Campaign which was initiated by Canadian men in 1991 (http://www.whiteribbon.ca/)
and the V-Day Campaign’s ‘V-Men’ counterpart (http://newsite.vday.org/).
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Tenth Festival of Pacific Arts ends
 The
10th Festival of Pacific Arts officially ended yesterday evening
with a spectacular Samoan fire dance and magnificent fireworks
display.
For the past 10 days, artists from 22 Pacific island countries and
territories have displayed arts forms ranging from the visual and
performing arts to traditional architecture and navigation and
canoeing
Co-chair of the American Samoan 10th Festival Organising Committee,
Mr Fagafaga Daniel Langkilde, says hosting the festival has brought
out the strength and pride of the people of American Samoa.
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Regional agencies step up work on gender equality
 A
gender studies programme is to be set up at the University of the
South Pacific (USP) as part of plans to accelerate the achievement
of gender equality in the Pacific.
The initiative was one of several outcomes of a recent meeting that
brought together representatives from about 20 development agencies,
civil society organisations (CSOs) and diplomatic missions to
discuss ways of improving inter-agency collaboration and making the
most of new opportunities to make equal status for women and men a
reality, not just a right.
Delegates at the meeting, held in Fiji from 20 to 22 August,
supported setting up a programme to advance equality education,
boost the number of gender equality advocates, and back up
organisations working to raise the status of Pacific women.
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UNCSW focuses on sharing of
responsibilities
 The
global HIV/AIDS pandemic has brought greater urgency to the issue of
caregiving. The equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men,
including caregiving in the context of HIV/AIDS, is a priority theme for the
53rd session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, which
got underway at UN headquarters in New York on Monday (March 2).
Youth and climate change: time for action is the theme of this
year’s celebrations.
The Secretariat of the Pacific Community’s Adviser for Youth, Rose
Maebiru, says the issue of climate change is one of the main
challenges young people in the Pacific will have to face in the
coming years.
‘They need to increase their awareness of the issue and begin to
think about necessary measures to confront it,’ she says.
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