Together with the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE) and the Society Against Family Violence (SAFV), IPS convened a closed-door discussion on the issue of family violence in Singapore. A more comprehensive response to family violence was cited as one of the areas that Singapore should make more progress in, in the Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW, 16 January 2012). These observations were in response to the Fourth Periodic Report that Singapore submitted to CEDAW.
Among participants at the closed-door discussion were representatives from the government, academia and civil society organisations working on the issue of eradicating violence against women. The discussion was divided into the three segments that formed the roadmap for achieving better outcomes in addressing family violence:
A one-year holistic review of policies and procedures
A coordinated national public education campaign; and
A well-aligned suite of capacity building efforts to help those dealing with reporting and treating victims of family violence do so more effectively .
Presentations were made by Ms Braema Mathi, Chair of the AWARE CEDAW Committee and Mr Benny Bong, President of SAFV. In their presentation, they found that some key areas that need to be addressed included an update and expansion of the definition of family violence; improved coordination among agencies working on family violence; more consistent collection of data; a change in social norms that lead to underreporting and perpetuation of family violence; addressing abuse that has been taking place among elderly, foreign wives and foreign domestic workers; updating the legal framework concerning family abuse; provision of more resources to address family violence and raise public awareness on this issue.
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