The Assistant Minister for Women, Children and Social Protection, Sashi Kiran, expressed that the statistics on child sexual abuse should evoke shame in Fiji as a nation. In her end-of-week statement in Parliament, she presented recent data from the Fiji Police Force on child sexual abuse cases reported between 2021 and 2023, as well as from January to June 2024.
According to Ms. Kiran, there were 729 reported cases of child sexual abuse in 2021, which rose to 1,034 cases in 2022, before declining to 844 cases in 2023. So far in 2024, 324 cases have been reported in the first half of the year. She stated that rape remains the most common offense against children in Fiji.
Breaking down this year’s data, 215 of the reported 324 cases involved children aged 13 to 17 years, 94 cases involved those aged 6 to 12 years, and 15 cases involved infants aged 0 to 5 years. Specifically, there were 104 cases of rape, 71 cases of indecent assault, and 60 cases of sexual assault. The majority of victims, totaling 297, were female.
While there seems to be a decline in cases overall, Ms. Kiran pointed out that the raw numbers fail to reflect the complete picture. She called on Fijians to address the troubling issues of child sexual and domestic abuse. Each month, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions releases alarming statistics that highlight the ongoing failures to protect children. Disturbingly, over the past six years, the average youngest victim of child sexual abuse has been just two years old, with the youngest recorded victim being only six months. UNICEF data indicates that 5 out of every 6 children in Fiji experience abuse or neglect within their families.
Ms. Kiran emphasized the need for serious action regarding these issues.