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Survey finds that domestic violence is rife in Thailand

Almost half of nearly 3,000 women surveyed in Thailand have been battered or sexually assaulted by their partners, World Health Organization (WHO) officials said on Thursday at the release of a global study on domestic abuse.

The findings come as activists warn that Thailand still has no satisfactory legal means to combat abuse, which is often dismissed by authorities as a private matter between women and their partners.

Abuse is an "endemic problem. In fact it is a public health problem in every society around the world," said William Aldis, the WHO's representative in Thailand.

In interviews conducted in mid-2000 in Bangkok and the northern Thai province of Nakhonsawan, 44 percent of women reported being abused.

In the following years, little has been done to improve the situation, activist Usa Lerdsrisuntad of the NGO Foundation for Women, one of the co-authors of Thailand's violence report, said.

Draft legislation on domestic violence now before the government "does not say clearly what is meant by violence against women," she said.

In many instances, interviewers conducting the study discovered that it was the first time the women had been able to talk about their partner's violence.

"It's still considered a matter not to be shared with outsiders," Wassana Im-em of Mahidol University said, adding that the impact of domestic abuse goes beyond physical injuries to become a "chronic long term health problem throughout society."

The study found a high number of abused women suffered secondary ailments such as depression and reproductive health disorders.

Thailand was one of 10 countries highlighted in the study, which in Asia also included Japan and Bangladesh.

In Japan 15 percent of women surveyed had suffered physical or sexual violence at the hands of a partner, the report said.

A much grimmer picture emerged in Bangladesh, where an average of 57 percent of women surveyed had been either physically or sexually assaulted.

"Violence against women represents an added burden on already struggling health systems in developing countries," the WHO's Henrica Jansen said.
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