Recently the Bible of the backpacker, Lonely Planet, listed Vanuatu as "the happiest place on earth".

Luckily for the leaders of the Pacific region this week they get to have their annual meeting in this, the happiest of all places...

The real story?

But many of the country’s women may beg to differ. They tell us of horrific stories of violence against women, of an estimated 60 to 70 per cent of women (they’re currently collecting the statistics, to be released later this year) experiencing violence in the home.

Their island sisters tell similar stories. Research in Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Samoa and Papua New Guinea all reveal similar numbers.

Lives of fear

The reality is, whether it’s domestic violence, rape and sexual violence, sexual harassment, sorcery-related killings, violence by police or other authority figures, many women in the Pacific lead lives of fear, abuse or injury.

But is violence against women, in all its manifestations, so widespread, so common, so accepted as a part of life, that complacency has set in?

And what exactly are the region’s leaders doing about it?

Eradicating sexual violence

Meeting under the banner of the Pacific Islands Forum, the leaders of the region come together annually to map out joint plans of cooperation – with the aim of seeing the region meet its true potential.

Last year in Cairns, they pledged to eradicate sexual and gender-based violence. They said it was "now widely recognised as a risk to human security and a potential destabilising factor for communities and societies alike".

They admitted that it was "pervasive across the Pacific", and because it was "still considered a sensitive issue in most Pacific cultures", its prevalence often went underreported.

A step in the right direction

To combat this, the leaders last year said they would, "establish firmly on the political agendas of Forum members the issue of sexual and gender-based violence", commit to eradicating such violence and ensure all individuals in the region would "have equal protection of the law and equal access to justice". A definite step in the right direction.

Visiting the ‘happiest place on earth’

So we at Amnesty International thought we too should venture to this allegedly happiest place on earth, just to see one year on, not only if it really was just that (i.e. happy), but more importantly, were Pacific governments starting to live up to there promises?

Well, those of us who managed to get a hold of the meeting’s communiqué would think not.

Meaningless rhetoric

Instead it seems Pacific leaders think it’s safe, and acceptable, to hide their inaction under a string of meaningless rhetoric… and I quote:

"Leaders commended actions in the region, particularly by national governments, to take forward their direction at Cairns in 2009 to address SGBV (sexual and gender based violence) and acknowledged the initiative of the FRSC (Forum Regional Security Committee) to recommend the establishment of a Reference Group on SGBV to assist the Forum Secretariat and support national efforts."

That was it, after a year. Now for the translation:

"Leaders patted themselves on the back for undisclosed actions taken to end violence against women by their own governments over the past year, and acknowledged the idea by one of their own committees to suggest setting up a group of experts to work with them on this issue."

Speechless.

It seems without real political will and action, we’ll just have to challenge Lonely Planet’s take on this country, and region.

Last year's meeting

Amnesty International also attended the Pacific Islands Forum leaders meeting in Cairns last year to lobby governments to address violence against women in the region.

We wrote to all the Pacific Leaders in the weeks prior to this year’s leader’s meeting, asking them to outline what progress they had made, if any, towards reaching this goal.

We are yet to receive a reply.

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