Child sexual abuse
324 cases recorded this year
THE Ɲrst six months of 2024 has recorded 324 cases of child sexual abuse.
Assistant Minister for Women, Children and Social Protection Sashi Kiran while highlighting this in Parliament on Friday said the monthly average of recording child sexual abuse cases was 54, with rape being the most prevalent offence targeting children in Fiji.
“Any child that has to go through the trauma of abuse, is one too many,” Ms Kiran said.
“These Ɲgures should be a source of shame and soulsearching for us as a nation.
“And most importantly we must look seriously at what we are doing about it.”
She highlighted the child sexual abuse data obtained from the Fiji Police Force reports in the years 2021 to 2023 and including January to June 2024.
“The year 2021 recorded 729 cases, followed by an increase in 2022 with 1034 cases and then a decline in 2023 with 844 cases.
“Data from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions indicate that average age of the youngest victims of child sexual abuse in the past six years is two years old.
“The youngest victim was six months old, and the average age of youngest accused person is 12 years old.”
She said three out of Ɲve rapes reported were against children and 23 births out of 1000 females were below 18 years of age.
“Let me give some breakdown of this year’s data – of the 324 child sexual abuse cases that were reported during January to June 2024 period, the 13-17 years age group had the highest number of reported cases (215), followed by the 6-12 years age group (94) and the infant 0-5 years age group (15).
“Rape was the most prevalent reported offence (104 cases), followed by indecent assault (71 cases) and sexual assault (60 cases).
“Females were the overwhelming victims of child sexual abuse, accounting for 297 (91.7 per cent) of the reported cases. Males accounted for the remaining 27 (8.3 per cent) cases.”
THE existing gap in mandated agencies deters the authorities from addressing issues related to drugs and human trafficking.
While highlighting this, Fiji Council of Social Services executive director Vani Catanasiga said there was no other way of addressing the issue apart from head-on.
“You know when we see there’s a lack of integrity, then we must address it,” she said.
Ms Catanasiga said law enforcement agencies must be told they should act with integrity.
“The 2023 United States of America, Trafficking in Persons Report, corroborates much of what communities are seeing concerning the capacity gaps that exist in mandated agencies,” she said.
Ms Catanasiga said they must be free from the inƞuence of corruption to address these issues.
“We think communities must also be educated and therefore the support from the Asia Foundation to do exactly that and empower communities to recognise and report trafficking without fear of stigma,” she added.
Ms Catanasiga said NGOs cannot Ɲght these issues alone.
You know when we see there’s a lack of integrity, then we must address it
– Vani Catanasiga