Results for Women

Tonga is still in the process of ratifying CEDAW - the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women. But Tonga has strong reservations on Article 2, which is the heart of the convention according to a United Nations Committee on the convention, the Minister for Education said today.

HRH Princess Latufuipeka Tonga's High Commissioner to Australia, was in Nuku'alofa today and visited the Women's Affairs Division, on a fact finding mission to see how she might assist in the development of women's group in Tonga.

Breast cancer ranks as one of the top 20 causes of death in Tonga and the rate is higher here than in the developed countries because women are leaving it too late to come forward for detection and treatment, speakers at the launch of "Pink October" for public awareness said this morning. A Vaiola Hospital surgeon Dr Saia Piukala called for traditional and religious healers and all Tongans to become involved in the talanoa on breast cancer in order to save more lives. Photos by Linny Folau.

The Tonga Nurses Associations of New Zealand and Australia, in support of a breast cancer awareness campaign in Tonga, made a donation of pink pins and ribbons to the President of the Tonga Breast Cancer Society, Hon. Frederica Tuita today.

Violence against women has become a way of life for some Tongan families, according to a report that was published last month by the Ma'a Fafine mo e Famili Inc., a local women's non government organization.

There is continuing hardship facing rural and outer island communities in Tonga, at a time when declining foreign remittances have reduced household incomes, a United Nations Commission the Status of Women, heard yesterday March 2.

Tonga's church leaders need to open their eyes and look beyond the bible in order to understand and combat a "huge problem" of gender-based violence, Bishop Paini Mafi, the Head of the Roman Catholic Church of Tonga and Niue, told a national consultation with government in Nuku'alofa on February 21.

'Ikale Tahi captain Finau Maka was popular in pink today as a special guest at an annual fundraising luncheon for the "Pink October Breast Cancer Awareness" programme.

Three students from the primary, secondary and tertiary levels in Tonga became the first winners of Westpac Women's Education Grants that assists with the cost of their local education.