1065 Female Police Officers In Fiji

There is no more women quota system in the Fiji Police Force.

This was revealed by Commissioner of Police Brigadier-General Sitiveni Qiliho while speaking at the force’s International Women’s Day celebration at the Police Headquarters in Laucala Beach on Tuesday.

Of the 4576 Police officers employed by the force, 1065 were women.

Brigadier-General Qiliho said while there was still so much to be done to achieve gender equality; the force had changed a few things that gave more opportunities for its women, partners and work colleagues.

“There are few achievements that we have achieved through the years that we sometimes don’t talk about when we tend to think that there is more to be done,” he said.

“When I arrived into the Fiji Police Force and the first recruitment that we were to do I was told that there was a quota system for male and females during recruits."

“I was quite surprised when I was told that the force had a quota system for males and females."

"There was even a quota system based on ethnicity."

"I totally disagreed with this and there were so many justifications, like they needed to speak this language to deal with this particular population; that women were not built tough like a man when we deal with this."

“At the end of that I made my decision that we are going to throw this and if we go out and do interviews and if it’s all women then we will run an all women recruit."

“It’s my job as a commissioner to provide them with the necessary equipment to look after them while executing their duties.”

Women in UN Mission

Brigadier-General Qiliho said there were more women participating now in the United Nations missions from the Fiji Police Force.

Today, there are equal representations of women in UN missions with five women and five men.

“I have mentioned earlier that Unaisi Vuniwaqa rising up to the Assistant Secretary General position with the UN in New York; that’s a big achievement."

“I have always told you that I am looking for the next Una, that we can support to achieve other great achievements for us all.”

He also added that promotions within the force were merit-based.

“Merit-based promotional opportunities where we have discussed in detail with my deputy and chief admin officer that come to promotions; now we will do away with names going to the promotional boards, we will allocate numbers so that they do not know whether it’s male or female.”

He added that there was an open door policy with him as commissioner when it came to women issues within the force.

Feedback: inoke.rabonu@fijisun.com.fj