The Women’s Rights Action Movement (WRAM) supports the Premier of Guadalcanal Province, Hon Anthony Veke in condemning in the strongest term, the barbaric killing of a Guadalcanal husband of his Temotuan wife in front of their five children, last week in Marau, South Guadalcanal.
Premier Veke made his statement in the Solomon Star on Friday 12th May 2017.
WRAM in a statement said, it was the first time a Premier of any province has gone public on their view on the issue of violence against women which many men in Solomon Islands, let alone national, provincial, community and traditional leaders, are not comfortable to talk about.
The Women’s Right Action Movement (WRAM) a non-government organisation (NGO) in Solomon Islands promoting the rights of women and girls including their rights to safety from all forms of violence; stands alongside the Guadalcanal Premier for taking a strong stand against violence against women and girls resulting in the deaths of women and the loss of mothers to the children who are left behind.
Premier Veke said that his government will be seeking legal advice and public opinion to take some drastic measures against alcoholism, alcohol presence, alcohol storage and alcohol consumption in Guadalcanal Province.
Chairlady of WRAM, Anika Kingmele said that her organisation is willing to work closely with the Premier of Guadalcanal Province to address the issue of violence against women and girls.
The Women’s Rights Action Movement has recently worked in Guadalcanal Province specifically with 19 females and 6 males from villages from Rere to Sukiki from 7 -10th March, 2017, to disseminate information on the Family Protection Act 2014 and human rights.
Human rights are values that promote respect, peace, and wellbeing of the community; while the Family Protection Act is the law that addresses violence that affects women and other members of families and sets out protection mechanisms and, awareness programmes for communities to take steps to intervene and address violence in the family setting.
Premier Veke said in his media statement that people will be commenting that such condemnation statement from him will do no good in curbing the deaths of women at the hands of their violent husbands and partners but added, “Such public rebuttal statements are needed to allow our support to victims and to portray that we are civilised people of this century do not entertain wild animal behaviour in our communities.
“Tougher, stringent measures will be implemented to curb alcoholism in Guadalcanal communities,” Premier Veke promised.
“And WRAM is willing to assist Premier Veke in developing policies and programmes to put an end to the continued action of violence against women and girls and the unreasonable tolerance and unwarranted justification of the violence,” WRAM Chairlady Mrs Kingmele contributed.
The WRAM Chairlady said it is now time for prominent leaders such as Premier Veke to take a stand against violence against women and girls and to begin taking realistic measures in addressing VAW.
Violence against women and girls is not an issue for women’s organisations only. The Premier of Guadalcanal Province has demonstrated that the government, both national and provincial needs to take a strong stand against the issue and to take action to ensure that increased attention is paid to this social ill, the WRAM President said.
She reiterated WRAM’s offer to work closely with Premier Veke and Guadalcanal Provincial Government to effectively address the issue of violence against women and girls.
Premier Veke has taken the first bold step to come out publicly to condemn the recent murder of the woman by her husband.
“Break the silence, be bold for change; together we can do it,” WRAM Chairlady, Mrs Kingmele ended.