Human rights watchdogs look forward to action by Fiji
International human rights watchdogs say they're looking forward to action by Fiji after its presentation to the United Nations in Geneva last week.
Transcript
International human rights watchdogs say they're looking forward to action by Fiji after its presentation to the United Nations in Geneva last week.
Fiji is undergoing its Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights Council, a peer review process all UN countries go through to ensure human rights around the world.
138 recommendations have been put to Fiji towards improving its human rights record.
Sally Round reports.
Human Rights Watch was among the groups which made submissions to the Council on Fiji. The deputy Asia director, Phil Robertson, says there's a big gap between the rhetoric Fiji presented in Geneva and the reality on the ground there.
PHIL ROBERTSON: Certainly Fiji turned in a very professional performance. They brought an important delegation, they did a good job in presenting their arguments and it's not unexpected that they of course were crowing about elections and emphasising the positive about their constitution but really the key issues that we're concerned about right now is an apparent reluctance by the government to ratify key UN human rights conventions and to really address some of the serious concerns about freedom of expression, freedom of association, freedom of assembly.
Fiji said it was up to Fiji's Parliament to ratify key human rights treaties like the Convention against Torture and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The delegation defended the government's score on judicial independence and dealing with violence against women and spoke about plans to improve police and court processes after allegations of torture by security forces. Amnesty International's Pacific researcher Kate Schuetze who attended the Geneva meeting said the plans for videotaping police interrogations and court sittings are welcome, and Amnesty's looking forward to seeing them put into practice.
KATE SCHUETZE: Those are aspects that help improve public confidence in the police force and the judiciary because it shows that that process is open and transparent in a way that we haven't seen in the past. But it's not just about recording what goes on you've actually got to follow through and make sure they're accountable if people step over that line and commit abuses.
She says it's not good enough for Fiji to say torture in custody could be put down to a cultural misconception.
KATE SCHUETZE: We want Fiji compliant with international human rights standards and that's always going to be a long journey. But we're hoping there will be more opportunities to work with the government in the future and I feel really positive that they seem to be much more willing to engage with us and other civil society organisations to get there.
She remains sceptical though about Fiji's plans to allow in UN experts like the Special Rapporteur on Torture.
KATE SCHUETZE: They welcomed that recommendation last time but of course they haven't positively engaged with or responded to or invited the Special Rapporteurs to visit. It's not enough for them to say 'we'll let them in at some point in time.' They've been asking to come for a number of years now. Fiji needs to open up its doors and willingly facilitate them coming.
Kate Schuetze says the UN Periodic Review process has shortcomings and it will be important for other countries to keep up the pressure on Fiji especially as it failed to recognise any problems with its laws on freedom of expression and association.
"We'd like them to take a bit more of a neutral stance and set up a parliamentary committee for example to review human rights compliance with some of the decrees that have been passed in the last few years. We think that would be a really positive measure to come out of the Universal Periodic Review."
Human Rights Watch's Phil Robertson says Fiji needs to prove to the world it's serious about turning the corner on human rights.
PHIL ROBERTSON: This is an important start and I hope that when Fiji comes back in March that they'll be in a position to accept many of those recommendations and actually go forward with issuing a standing invitation to the UN Special Rapporteur to visit Fiji or to ratify some of these major human rights conventions that they still have left out there.
Fiji is due to respond on which recommendations it will accept or reject by the 28th Session of the Human Rights Council in March next year.
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