Fiji opposition feels validated by concerns raised by UN

Transcript

A Fiji politician says a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council has validated the concerns opposition parties have been raising for years.
 
A government delegation defended the country's human rights situation at the Council, but is considering recommendations including ratifying key international human rights conventions.

The opposition leader Ro Teimumu Kepa told Bridget Tunnicliffe concerns raised by other countries at the meeting were an endorsement of what they've been raising about the government's conduct.

RO TEIMUMU KEPA: About the human rights abuses and how our rights have been curtailed in terms of the various degrees that they have put out.

BRIDGET TUNNICLIFFE: And the UN made recommendations to the Fiji Government. Are you pleased with the recommendations?

RT: We hope that the government will set up a commission, perhaps a constitutional review commission, so it is at a level where the people of Fiji can make proper submissions in terms of what has come out from the UN council reporting because it is something that we have been campaigning for

BT: Fiji First has sort of congratulated itself for its trip to Geneva and portrayed it as they have been given a pat on the back almost from the UN for the work they have done. Do you see it quite differently?

RT: I see this is a very good example of how the media decree has secured even the media people, the reporters, into believing anything that the government comes up with and they report it as the gospel truth. We have reporters who just report what the government says - some more than others. Also it's probably relevant to add here that we see high-powered government delegations that went to Geneva - instead of influencing the council members I am sure that it set a red flag as to why high-powered people would have all arrived there when clearly there should have been a separation of powers there where you have political people and the judiciary and others arriving in the same delegation without even the opposition being included.

BT: And you are urging the government to engage in genuine dialogue with opposition parties?

RT: That is what we have been telling them all along. I think in this particular case had they included a member of the opposition it would have been a better reflection on their submissions and it would have been more balanced because it is not just coming from them but it is also coming from the opposition's side of the house.

BT: You say there are many aspects of the constitution that need correcting. Do you need sense that the Government will be open to that?

RT: Well, if we are going to be taking the recommendations by the council which has given them until March 2015 to look at the recommendations and take on board the thinking of the public especially those who haven't had a voice until now. I think they have to take it seriously.

The SODELPA party leader Ro Teimumu Kepa says a good starting point would be the Ghai draft constitution, which was discarded by the regime two years ago, despite being built around thousands of submissions.