![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Regine-Biscoe-Lee.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSen. R\u00e9gine Biscoe Lee has secured a regional commitment to report and share data about crimes committed against children, women, and the elderly across the Pacific.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Democrat lawmaker is on Saipan this week as part of Guam\u2019s delegation to the 60th general membership meeting of the Association of Pacific Island Legislatures. Lee serves as a member of the regional organization\u2019s board of directors for the 2018-2019 term.<\/p>\n
As part of this year\u2019s proceedings, Lee introduced a resolution that commits APIL members to \u201cunifying efforts to curb the victimization of vulnerable populations, by establishing and committing to regional reporting of crimes committed against children, women, and the elderly.\u201d The measure is co-sponsored by the delegations from Chuuk, the CNMI, Kiribati, and Hawaii. It was unanimously adopted by the APIL yesterday.<\/p>\n
\u201cAcross the Pacific, cultures share values that revere the elderly, honor women, and protect children. Unfortunately, throughout our region too many nations and territories see violence and exploitation perpetrated against these important members of our island families,\u201d\u00a0the resolution reads, in part. \u201cEfforts to understand, prevent, and punish these crimes can be made more effective if communities tied by common cultural threads collect and share comparable data.\u201d<\/p>\n
Regional stakeholders have noted gaps in reporting gender-based and other biased crimes as recently as this year\u2019s United Nations Development Programme\u2019s Pacific Women Leadership Summit, which Lee attended.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese despicable crimes steal the innocence of our youth, instill fear in our mothers, and violate the trust of our wisest familial leaders. I\u2019m thankful that the members of APIL agree that by coming together, we can make a difference,\u201d\u00a0 Lee said. \u201cThese opportunities to learn from one another, and commit to solving problems across the Pacific with solutions from within our region, is the best way forward. This is the first step to better researching and curbing these violent acts.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0The resolution provides that APIL members will establish, by local statute or otherwise, at least an annual report of crimes perpetrated against children, women, and the elderly. These reports will include important information like:
\n\u2022\u00a0The total number and demographic information of victims (including age, gender, ethnicity, etc.);
\n\u2022\u00a0The total number and demographic information of convicted abusers (including age, gender, relationship to victim, number of convictions, etc.);
\n\u2022\u00a0Information about crime perpetrated (clarifying violence, criminal sexual conduct, financial exploitation, etc.);
\n\u2022\u00a0Information regarding the resolution of criminal cases (verdict reached, plea deal negotiated, dismissal of case, etc.);
\n\u2022\u00a0Current penalties for crimes committed against children, women, and the elderly; and
\n\u2022\u00a0Any newly adopted or enacted rules, regulations, or statutes addressing crimes committed against children, women, and the elderly.<\/p>\n
Once compiled and published, APIL member jurisdictions will transmit their reports to the association\u2019s secretariat, who will then post all data to the APIL website for the free use of regional researchers and legislators. Sen. R\u00e9gine Biscoe Lee has secured a regional commitment to report and share data about…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":309809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[44],"class_list":["post-313517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-study"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nLee also authored a resolution that continues the Micronesia Challenge, a successful regional cleanup program. This measure also was adopted unanimously. (PR)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"