15 Dec 2005

Fiji human rights advisor says inaugural Digest will help activists and legal fraternity

2:24 pm on 15 December 2005

The Pacific Regional Rights Resource Team in Fiji is to launch the first Pacific Human Rights Law Digest today.

The book is edited by the vice president of Fiji, the former High Court judge and former human rights commissioner, Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi, and a human rights advisor, Imrana Jalal.

Ms Jalal says the Digest is a collection of more than 50 case law summaries from nine Pacific countries that analyse the judgements from a human rights perspective.

"This particular Digest focusses on the use of international human rights conventions in Pacific Island courts. So what we have done is we have looked at the cases that have either accepted those international standards or rejected them and looked at the reasoning behind it, with the purpose of encouraging more use of human rights standards and principles."

Imrana Jalal says the Digest will be used by law students, lawyers and judges as precedents and by those human rights activists who look to the law as a potential arena of change.