There are many things that we aspire to in our Constitution, but when you draw that down, the laws are not there in place to support them.

Executive director of non-governmental organisation Diva for Equality Noelene Nabulivou made this comment while responding on the alarming rates of violence against women and girls in the country. “We have a Constitution that has wonderful provisions on gender equality,” she said.

“The policies are not there to support the laws, and the procedures aren’t there to support the policy.

“All the way down from this very progressive Constitution, you then have all the gaps below.

“So if you were really serious, you would make the changes so that the laws and policies and procedures were in line with the Constitution, so that everybody is equivalent before the law.

“We’re very good at saying what we should do.

We’re not so good at implementing it.”

She said the statistics on violence against women and girls was “terrible”, adding that Fiji had double the global rates of violence against women and girls.

“What we are saying is that the state still recognises the male as the centre of attention and until that changes, until women are honoured and looked at, it won’t drop,” Ms Nabulivou said.

“Patriarchy basically is about men up here and women below, then children.

“Until we change that, really, we won’t see any shift.

People don’t want to hear that, but to be honest, that’s the real solution.”