We Are All Created Equal - Preventing Violence Against Women and Girls in Fiji’s Faith Settings

While it is vital to provide services that support survivors of violence against women and girls, meaningful progress in addressing violence against women and girls must address its root causes at every level of society –individual, interpersonal, community and societal.

A critical area of social life that cuts across every level of society is religious faith. Faith plays an important role in people’s lives, relationships, and communities, and is an influential setting that has the power to address violence against women and girls. There is emerging global evidence on what works to prevent violence against women and girls in faith settings with promising interventions and practices.

This paper, co-written by the House of Sarah and UN Women Fiji Multi-Country Office, is for policy makers, practitioners and faith-based organisations working to prevent violence against women and girls in faith settings in Fiji, the Pacific, and beyond. It describes the journey of House of Sarah, a faith-based civil society organisation in Suva, Fiji, working to prevent violence against women and girls, and documents evidence and lessons so that others may learn from and be inspired by their experience to adapt faith-based prevention programming to their own contexts.

It is the third paper to be released in 2022 as part of a series of knowledge products led by UN Women under the Pacific Partnership to End Violence Against Women and Girls (Pacific Partnership)programme, in partnership with government and civil society organisations. The programme is funded primarily by the European Union, and the Governments of Australia and New Zealand, and UN Women, and is led by the Pacific Community, UN Women, and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat.

You can also read an accessible version in Word below.