Platform mooted to address violence

ADDRESSING issues of family and sexual violence (FSV) and gender-based violence (GBV) deal with people’s behaviour and it takes real courage, effort and time to address the issues, an official says.
Department of Justice and Attorney-General Secretary and chairman of the Family and Sexual Violence Action Committee (FSVAC) at the Consultative Implementation and Monitoring Council (CIMC), Dr Lawrence Kalinoe, spoke of the issues during the opening of a three-day national consultation workshop on family and sexual violence (FSV) in Port Moresby last week.
Kalinoe told the workshop attended by senior officials, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), development partners and provincial planners, managers and advisers for community developments and FSVs and GBVs that addressing those issues involved changing the behaviour, attitude and characters of people and required courage and effort to achieve that.
“We are in the business of changing people’s behaviour, attitude and characters and it takes a lot of courage and effort to achieve that,” he said.
“That’s why, we must never give up and be persistent in our efforts to address the issues of family and sexual violence and gender-based violence,” Kalinoe said.
He said in order to address the issues of FSVs and GBVs effectively in the country, provincial FSV and GBV committees and civil societies and NGOs involved in addressing FSVs and GBVs need to be supported adequately.
“And where do we get that actual support from? It needs to be from the Government and that is something we all need to work together to address,” Kalinoe said.
CIMC executive officer Wallis Yakam said the recent development of the National GBV Strategy was creating a platform for better coordination between all stakeholders involved in addressing FSVs and GBVs issues in the country.
The Government, NGOs, private sector companies and development partners must create a platform for Government to provide assistance and support to address these issues.