When Pacific leaders arrive in New York for the 70th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), they bring more than national statements. They carry a regional commitment – and a partnership designed to transform how power operates in the lives of women and girls across the Blue Pacific.
CSW is the United Nations’ principal global forum on gender equality. This year it convenes under the theme “Ensuring and strengthening access to justice for all women and girls.” For the first time, the formal programme also includes dedicated high-level discussions focused specifically on ending violence against women and girls, reflecting growing global recognition that ending violence is fundamental to achieving justice and sustainable development.
Across the Pacific, regional studies indicate that nearly two in three women in the Pacific have experienced physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, most often perpetrated by an intimate partner. Behind this statistic are thousands of individual stories of women navigating fear, silence and the hope that the institutions meant to protect them will respond. These are not isolated incidents. They reflect entrenched gender inequalities, harmful social norms and systemic gaps in prevention and response, compounded in many contexts by geographic isolation and climate-related disasters.
The scale of violence in the Pacific is stark, and no one should underestimate the work still ahead. But leadership is not measured by the absence of a problem. It is measured by the willingness to confront it openly and build the systems needed to end it.
It was against this backdrop that the Pacific Partnership to End Violence Against Women and Girls (Pacific Partnership) was established in 2018. Conceived as a long-term systemic initiative, the programme recognised that violence could not be addressed through fragmented projects. Instead, it supports coordinated national and regional action spanning prevention, law reform, service delivery and political leadership.
As global discussions at CSW focus on access to justice, the Pacific arrives with experience and institutional progress. The region is not starting from scratch, nor is it a passive recipient of global models. It is advancing approaches grounded in Pacific realities, cultures, and governance systems.
Turning Commitments into Protection
Justice for women and girls does not begin in a courtroom. It begins in homes, schools, churches and sports fields – in the everyday spaces where power, norms and relationships shape women’s lives.
Too often survivors face disbelief, pressure to reconcile, economic dependence or fragmented services. Laws may exist on paper, but access to justice is undermined by stigma and unequal power relations. Recognising this reality, the Pacific Partnership was designed to confront the structural drivers of violence, not simply respond after harm has occurred.
Pacific leaders have repeatedly affirmed that gender equality and freedom from violence are foundational to regional prosperity and resilience. Translating political commitment into effective institutional architecture, however, requires sustained support, coordination and long-term investment.
Programs such as the Pacific Partnership have played a catalytic role in strengthening national governance mechanisms, supporting implementation of domestic violence legislation and embedding coordinated referral systems. In a community in Solomon Islands, a survivor of domestic violence once had to visit four different offices before receiving help – the police, a clinic, the court and a local NGO – each operating separately. Today, through the SAFENET referral network, those services coordinate to ensure survivors can access support through a single, safer pathway. Similar systems are now operating in Kiribati, linking police, health, justice and social services into structured pathways designed around survivor safety. These reforms demonstrate how coordinated systems can reduce fragmentation and strengthen protection.
Sustained donor commitment to programs, such as in the case of the Pacific Partnership, has allowed the shift to beyond short project cycles to supporting governments to build durable systems and locally led solutions. Justice, in this sense, becomes an ecosystem with political leadership, administrative coordination and community trust.
Transforming Norms
Ending violence requires confronting the norms that sustain it.
Across the region, there is growing emphasis on engaging men and boys as partners in prevention – in classrooms, on rugby fields and in church halls. Young men are learning that leadership is not measured through dominance, but through respect and responsibility.
When faith leaders reinterpret theology through a lens of dignity and non-violence, when coaches promote respectful relationships as part of teamwork and when male political leaders speak clearly against abuse, social norms begin to shift. These changes challenge the social permission structures that allow violence to persist.
The role of men and boys in advocating for gender equality is increasingly recognised as critical to gender-transformative change. Programs that engage men and boys are most effective when they are tailored to specific contexts, consider intersectionality, and are developed in partnership with women’s rights organisations.
Framing violence prevention through Early Childhood Development (ECD) approaches recognises the formative influence of families, communities and cultural identity. It affirms the critical role children’s wellbeing and development from birth plays in progressing gender equality and social inclusion. Shaping values early helps establish the foundations for respectful, non-violent relationships later in life, and contributes to building inclusive and gender-responsive communities.
Justice in a Climate-Changed Pacific
In the Pacific, strengthening legal protections against gender-based violence inclusive of violence against women is inseparable from strengthening climate resilience.
When a cyclone hits a small island community, the damage extends beyond flooded roads and broken infrastructure. In evacuation centres where families crowd together for safety, privacy disappears and tensions can rise. A woman experiencing violence may find the road to the police station cut, the clinic closed or communications systems down.
Climate shocks can heighten risks for women and girls while simultaneously weakening access to justice and protection services. For this reason, disaster response and gender-based violence prevention cannot be treated as separate policy domains. Justice systems must be designed to remain accessible even in times of crisis.
Financing Justice as Development
One of the most important contributions of the Pacific Partnership has been its long-term, programmatic approach. Rather than funding isolated projects, it supports coordinated national and regional strategies sustained over multiple years.
This model connects policy reform, prevention, service delivery and regional coordination into a single system of action. It reflects a growing recognition that ending violence against women is not a peripheral social issue – it is fundamental to effective governance, security and sustainable development.
For Small Island Developing States facing fiscal constraints, sustained international cooperation remains essential. Prevention and response systems cannot be built through short-term funding cycles. They require consistent investment, gender-responsive budgeting and long-term planning.
Justice, therefore, needs to be understood as core development infrastructure.
From Global Dialogue to Local Transformation
At CSW70, the Pacific is not presenting a narrative of vulnerability alone. It is presenting a model of coordinated regional action, anchored in political commitment and sustained through partnership.
Whole-of-government prevention strategies. Coordinated referral pathways. Legislative reform. Engagement of men and boys. Climateresponsive planning. Together, these efforts form a regional architecture aimed at transforming power. One that has people – survivors of violence – at its centre. Justice is not achieved by response alone; it is built through prevention, protection and accountability.
International forums generate momentum. But justice will ultimately be measured in Pacific communities: in whether survivors are protected, institutions act with accountability and social norms shift toward equality.
The Blue Pacific Continent’s message is clear. Ending gender-based violence requires long-term investment, regional solidarity and institutional reform. Through the Pacific Partnership and collaboration between regional organisations, that transformation is not only envisioned – it is already underway.
Footnote:
The Pacific Partnership brings together governments, civil society organisations, communities, and other partners to promote gender equality, prevent violence against women and girls, and increase access to quality response services for survivors. In Phase II, the partnership is funded primarily by the Government of Australia. and the European Union, and coordinated by UN Women and the Pacific Community (SPC), in strategic partnership with the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS). It builds on the achievements of Phase I and wide-ranging regional and national partnership and initiatives on gender equality and ending violence against women and girls.