The U.S. State Department’s 2014 Human Rights Practices report has again cited concerns with poor conditions at prisons in Samoa, saying “Prison conditions overall were harsh and remained below international standards.”

However, the report also highlighted a change in the country’s election next year, in which five parliament seats are reserved for women.

Compiled by the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, the Human Rights report was released yesterday in Washington D.C. and covers all world countries.

In releasing the report, U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry told a news conference that the reports for each country can actually give world governments an added incentive to honor the right and the dignity of their citizens. “It also equips interested observers with an arsenal of facts,” he said.

For Samoa, the report states that the “principal human rights problems were poor prison conditions and domestic violence against women.” (Samoa News should point out that these are the same issues that have been raised in the past).

Regarding prison conditions, the report says that as of last October, there were about 481 inmates in the prison system, including 35 women and 50 juveniles. The Tafaigata men’s prison, the country’s most crowded, had 29 cells of various sizes. Additionally, cell lighting and ventilation remained poor.

It also states that regulations require prisoners at all facilities, including the juvenile facility, to do manual labor approximately 40 hours per week. Prisoners generally performed agricultural work and cooked food for inmates and prison staff.

Regarding the issue of domestic violence against women, the report says the Samoa constitution prohibits abuse of women, “but societal attitudes tolerated their physical abuse within the home.”

“Social pressure and fear of reprisal typically caused such abuse to go unreported,” it says, adding that village councils typically punished domestic violence offenders but only if the abuse was considered extreme, such as incidents involving visible signs of physical abuse.

According to the report, domestic violence is charged as common criminal assault, with penalties ranging from several months to one year in prison. And while the Samoa government did not keep statistics on domestic abuse, it “acknowledged the problem as one of considerable concern.”

It also says that the Ministry of Police and Prisons had a nine-person Domestic Violence Unit, which worked in collaboration with NGOs that combated domestic abuse. NGO services for abused women included public anti-violence awareness programs, shelters, confidential hotlines, in-person counseling, and other support.

“Other human rights problems included lack of accountability of and adherence to the rule of law by village ‘fonos’ (councils of matai), abuse of children, and discrimination against women and non matai,” according to the U.S. government report.

Regarding the issue of child abuse, the report says that law and tradition prohibit the severe abuse of children, but both tolerate corporal punishment.

Although no official statistics were available, press  reports indicated a rise in cases reported of child abuse, especially incest and indecent assault cases, which appeared to be due to citizens’ increased awareness of the need to report physical, emotional, and sexual abuse of children.

“The government aggressively prosecuted such cases,” the report says.

WOMEN

Under the report’s subsection “Election and Political Participation”, the report noted that a 2013 constitutional amendment requires parliament to include at least five female representatives starting with the next general election in 2016.

If no women win five parliamentary seats in the next election, the amendment provides for the addition of five seats to the 49 be filled by the five female candidates with the highest number of votes, it says.

As a result of the 2011 general election, there were two women in the 49-member parliament. They were joined by a third woman who won a by-election for a seat vacated due to an incumbent’s death.

The report also pointed out that: a woman served as governor of the central bank; four women served as chief executive officers of government ministries and seven as general managers of government corporations; one woman served as a Supreme Court judge and two as district court judges.

Samoa News should point out that because American Samoa is a U.S. territory, its human rights practices — along with other territories and the entire U.S. — are not included in the report.

More details of the 18-page report on Samoa, as well as other countries can be found at www.state.gov