25 Jul 2005

Fiji nationalists reject Declaration of Human Rights

10:23 am on 25 July 2005

Fiji's Nationalist Vanua Tako Lavu Party has totally rejected the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international conventions and labelled them as "Anglo-Saxon laws."

The Daily Post reports that the party, which will be contesting next year's general elections, believes that "indigenous rights are supreme as they are divined by God."

The newspaper says the party president and former coup convict, Iliesa Duvuloco, made the comment after a meeting of their representatives in Suva yesterday.

The meeting came after the vice president, Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi, told another roundtable that human rights are fundamental because people are born with them and they should not be undermined using indigenous rights.

But Mr Duvuloco says party members rejected the International Declaration of Human rights and international conventions and said indigenous rights should be supreme.

He says the party wants the Constitution changed to ensure indigenous Fijian leadership of the country as part of indigenous rights, as well as a two-thirds majority for indigenous Fijians in the House of Representatives.

Mr Duvuloco says that is the recipe for peace in Fiji and will stop the coup culture.