Human rights challenges in Pacific identified

Transcript

ROMULO NAYACALEVU: Right across the Pacific it seems like the challenges with resources, financial as well as human resources to be able to implement some of the, as they've identified in the room, ambitious recommendations that the countries have made to Pacific Island states. Other challenges have included political will, national priorities and the different experiences of each government with regards to both economic and other commitments they have.

BRIDGET TUNNICLIFFE: I suppose with political will and national priorities that's a hard one to tackle because it's more a state of mind.

RN: That's correct and in fact, for example, Tuvalu has been able to come and talk recently about how their government has endorsed both a national action plan on human rights as well as a scoping report upon the creation of the national human rights institution and based on their presentation these are enormous steps for a very small island country that is of course confronting its own immediate challenges, but they have brought that down to the strong political commitment to advance this otherwise very difficult recommendation which is an NHRI and the creation of that or the creation of a national action plan for human rights.

BT: Do you think if more women were involved in these governments, in politics, that the political will would be expedited?

RN: There are some parliaments that do have the involvement of women and in fact I think generally it is just a matter of what are the national priorities that governments are confronting and you know, we see that there are varied experiences, Marshall Islands have come and given their achievements, and challenges and other countries that have women in their parliaments but I think it comes down to countries actually coordinating their UPR work better and they've identified that as a huge challenge in terms of just making sure that these recommendations are streamlined into national commitments and therefore there is a more proactive response to international recommendations.