Senior Supreme Court Justice Vui Clarence Nelson has stressed the importance of children shaping Samoa’s future, and pointed out that the Samoan culture of using violence to discipline children is abuse.
He was speaking at a conference at the Taumeasina Island Resort which is part of a follow-up visit by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, scheduled to run for three days.
In an interview with the Samoa Observer, Justice Vui said, with many cases going before the courts on a daily basis, he was disheartened by the rise in violence against children cases.
“Many cases involve children and it keeps going up and it’s really disheartening. When will the violence stop against our children in terms of sexual violence and sexual abuse, especially within our families? I am really sad with how this is still happening,” he said.
He said some of the resolutions from the March 2020, 84th Extraordinary Outreach Session of the Committee on the Rights of the Child convened in Samoa were not implemented, and that’s why this conference is important—to remind these countries of their commitment to make this happen when they return to their respective countries.
The Senior Supreme Court Justice was the first Pacific Islands judge to be appointed to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2014. In 2018, he was re-elected for another four-year term on the UN Committee and served as its Vice Chairperson and the Coordinator of the Working Group on the Optional Protocol on a Communications Procedure before his second term ended last year.
