Transcript
Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein finished his week's regional travel in Fiji.
While there, civil society leaders expressed concerns to him at the at the limits placed on dissenting voices.
The Commissioner warned against the use of broad laws to prosecute journalists whose work is deemed by the government to be against the public interest or public order.
Zeid says this discourages a plurality of views on issues.
He says there is also talk about regulating hate speech and fake news.
"I have urged the government to ensure that any attempts to legislate on issues relating to freedom of expression are in line with Articles 19 and 20 of the ICCPR [the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights] and for them to consult the Rabat plan of action for guidance on drawing the delicate lines between permissible speech and speech that may amount to incitement."
Before Fiji, the commissioner had visited PNG.
Zeid found that corruption remains rife in PNG, often affecting the right to land of its citizens.
The way that businesses, particularly mining and logging companies, were utilising the land, getting land leases from the government without the prior, free, informed consent from the communities was a big issue for the commissioner.
"There have to be meaningful steps when it comes to having these sorts of large projects and investments take place, when communities can well be affected as a result of them adversely, and not properly having understood beforehand the consequences of what it would mean in terms of the access to water resources or access to lands which are ancestral to them."
The Commissioner also told PNG to ensure that refugees held on Manus island have access to basic necessities and rights while they are in the country.
Zeid conveyed the UN human rights office's long running concern about what he calls Australia's unacceptable arrangements for offshore processing of asylum seekers.
"We were never in favour of a long-term detention. What we always see is any facility that provides for detention over a long term inevitably becomes a centre for abuse almost. For that reason, you're looking for other non-custodial facilities, other alternatives. But that alternative does not work, in our opinion."
Earlier, the commissioner had a couple of days in Jakarta where he met with Indonesia's president Joko Widodo.
Zeid said he was concerned about "reports of excessive use of force by security forces, harassment, arbitrary arrests and detentions in Papua".
Jakarta has invited him to visit West Papua.
"As soon as we can we will mount a mission to West Papua so that we can engage directly with the communities there, and be in a position to comment and to speak to the government about the situation in West Papua."
Overall, while welcoming moves undertaken by President Widodo's administration towards social equity, the commissioner voiced concern about "extremist views playing out in the political arena".
