MEDIA RELEASE: PM Addresses High Level Segment of the 28th Session of the UN Human Rights Council
2 March 2015, Geneva. Prime Minister Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama this morning addressed the High Level Segment of the 28th Session of the UN Human Rights Council.
Prime
Minister Bainimarama shared with the international community the
history of divisiveness in the country that has prevented the
realisation of human rights for all Fijians.
The
Prime Minister said that he assumed control of Fiji to remove an
ethno-nationalist government that had embarked on a campaign to
marginalise the country’s minorities and underprivileged.
“Unlike
other takeovers, ours was to assert the principle of equality in our
nation once and for all. And to assert the human rights of every
citizen, irrespective of ethnicity, religious affiliation, personal
circumstance including socio-economic status, sexual orientation or
gender identity,” the Prime Minister said.
“We
drew a line under the past. We reset the national compass. We declared
Year Zero to finally begin building a modern nation state in which the
universal principles of true democracy and human rights are enshrined,
in law, and practised in our national life.”
The
Prime Minister went on to tell the Human Rights Council that Fiji’s
peaceful and orderly transition to Parliamentary rule has been a
national triumph and one of great credit to the Fijian people.
“Fiji,
as a developing nation, has never stood taller or prouder in the world,
nor is it more deserving of the support of the international community.
Fiji has delivered the biggest human right of all - the right to
equality, human dignity and justice for every citizen.”
The
Prime Minister highlighted the extensive reforms under way towards the
progressive realization of the human rights that are articulated in
Fiji’s Constitution. He explained that the reforms - and the
Constitution - focus on socio-economic rights as well as civil and
political rights.
The Prime Minister also told the High Level Segment that indigenous rights are well protected under our Constitution.
The
Prime Minister said that unlike some countries in the world, where the
indigenous were exploited, dispossessed, exploited and marginalised,
approximately 91 per cent of the land in Fiji was owned by the i-Taukei
people.
He
said that this made the Fijian indigenous experience unique, if not
rare, and that this has given the indigenous people of Fiji a level of
security that has been noticeably absent in other countries.
“The
rationale behind the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous people does not readily apply to Fiji in the way that it does
to those nations whose indigenous citizens have been and continue to be
exploited, marginalised and dispossessed.”
Prime
Minister Bainimarama also took the opportunity to tell the High Level
Segment that there is a reform process underway in Parliament to ratify
UN Convention Against Torture (UNCAT).
He
said that the issue of ratification was currently before Parliament for
scrutiny, and that both the Fiji Police Force and the Fiji Military
Forces had publicly committed themselves to the implementation of UNCAT.
The
Prime Minister said that he was proud to report that the Fijian
Parliament had passed a bill in February 2015 to remove the death
penalty from the laws governing the military.
The
Prime Minister told the Human Rights Council that the death penalty had
now been completely removed from Fijian law, “giving credence to
section 8 of our Constitution which is the right to life”.
The Prime Minister will be in Geneva till Wednesday conducting bilateral meetings in the margins of the 28th Session of the Human Rights Council.
-ENDS-