Gender human rights in the Solomon Islands ... devastating report released. Graphic crop of a water well on the report cover: PMC

Pacific Scoop:
Quotes – By the PMC news desk

Women in Honiara’s slums face particularly high risks of physical and sexual violence, especially when they are collecting water in the early evening, bathing, or using toilets at night, says the new Amnesty International report on gender, human rights and water and sanitation in the Solomon Islands.

The report, “Where’s the dignity in that?”, launched today by Amnesty International Aotearoa’s chief executive Patrick Holmes at a pre-Pacific Islands Forum event at AUT University, says: “They often walk long distances, usually through the bush to get to a water source or to use the toilet. Because there is no electricity, settlements are generally poorly lit at night, with many dark spots which are dangerous for women.”

Some often walk for 1km or more carrying water.

Here are some quotes from women describing their harrowing ordeals to Amnesty International:

Maria, a 38-year-old civil servant and mother of two girls, aged six and eight:

“I wake up around 4.30am every day. After my morning devotion, I begin preparing for breakfast and make my children’s school lunches. If there is no drinking water left, I have to walk to the pipe which is quite a long way away to collect the water.

“I always dread walking in the morning because some of the men in the settlement will be up drinking from the night before and more often than not they will turn their attention to me and harass me. I know these boys well so I always tell them politely that they should have respect for me as I am older than them. I am always very frightened when they harass me as I know they have assaulted and raped some of the younger girls in the past…

“We share a pit toilet 1 with another six households, it is about 60 metres from our house and it’s on a steep slope. When we go to the toilet, we have to be very careful so that we don’t slide down the hill and hurt ourselves.

“The toilet itself is very dirty but what other choice do we have?”

A 26-year-old child care worker from Adiliwa in East Kola Ridge carries up to 20 bottles of water on the 4km walk home:

“We live in a very small house. There are 10 of us in our household and sometimes we sleep in shifts. We use the streams beside our settlements for bathing, washing and as a toilet. It is very dirty but what other choices do we have? I’m glad that I can take some water from my relatives so we don’t have problems with drinking water. Other families have to walk for kilometres to Malele to get drinking water from a relatively clean stream. But a businessman is developing the area around the stream so we are not sure whether the stream will still be there in a few years’ time.

“It’s very heavy to carry water home but what can I do? Sometimes, a friend and I will walk home together and share the heavy load but most of the time I have to carry these. It’s a hard life and water is so important for our survival.”

A 37-year-old woman who lives in Mamanawata settlement says that six months previously she had been severely beaten up and raped by two men in the settlement after relieving herself in the sea:

“The two men were standing by the beach when I finished. I recognised them immediately from their voices. I knew they were drunk because I saw them drinking in the dilapidated house close to the road in the early evening.

“They came and one of them grabbed my arm and one closed his hand over my mouth. They held me down and took my clothes off and raped me. They were very violent and I had bruises all over my body. I wanted to die desperately and I was crying and crying thinking of my children. After they raped me, they warned me that if I told anyone they would cut me up. I was so afraid but couldn’t do anything. I see them around the settlement but I wouldn’t dare tell the police. They’re very violent and lawless and will not hesitate to hurt me again.”

An 18-year old woman from Kobito 4 settlement tells about her experience of sexual violence:

“I dropped out of school five years ago because we couldn’t afford to pay the fees, uniform and my bus fare to school every day. Since then, I have stayed at home and helped my mother and father with the house chores. We are very poor and my father sells betel nut at the market up the road. Every day I walk to the broken water pipe in Kobiloko to collect water. I walk in the morning for the water to be used in the day and then walk in the afternoon for our evening drinking and cooking water.

“About a year ago, while walking to collect water in the afternoon, I was gang-raped by six boys from the nearby settlement. They always drink kwaso by the roadside and when I walked past them, they started calling me to go and say hello to them. I didn’t say anything and kept on walking. I was also worried that it was going to get dark soon and I still had a long way to walk to the pipe.

“On my way back with the water, I met the same boys up the hill. It had gotten dark and they began to harass me. One of them said that they could carry the water for me. When I said no, he got angry and said that I had insulted him. He demanded that the only way to compensate for that was to have sex with him. I refused and he punched me in the stomach. The others then grabbed me and carried me to the bush where I was raped. They each raped me and then left me there after threatening to kill me and my family. I had a black eye and was sore.”

Download the full Amnesty International Solomon Islands report