A U.N.-supported workshop in Majuro that ends Friday is giving the Marshall Islands a chance to “catch up in an area long-neglected by the government,” said Sen. Tony deBrum.
The U.N. Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights, the Pacific Regional Rights Resource Team and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community are supporting a “Universal Periodic Review” of human rights programs in the Marshall Islands, Kiribati and the Federated States of Micronesia for a November review in Geneva.
“This Universal Periodic Review Forum of the Marshall Islands was conceived to prompt, support and expand the promotion and protection of human rights on the ground,” said Foreign Minister John Silk, adding it has “significant consequences for our people and our human rights standings.”
“We have only a short time to accomplish an awesome task,” said deBrum, a former foreign minister who represents Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands parliament.
To launch economic development, the Marshall Islands focused membership on international bodies as the Asian Development Bank, World Bank, European Union and others while “sacrificing attention on the more important issues at home of secure families, respect of rights, and violence against women,” deBrum said.
The Marshall Islands “falls short of good governance in health and education, and protection of the weak,” deBrum said. “We need to catch up.”
The most recent U.S. State Department report on the Marshall Islands said the country¹s main prison did not meet minimal international standards, and noted reports of domestic violence.
DeBrum confirmed that violence against women and children is pervasive in the country and needs action.
“Everyone in the Marshall Islands has had direct contact with a person who has experienced violence or child abuse,” he said.
DeBrum said the national women’s group, Women United Together Marshall Islands, or WUTMI, has functioned as the Marshall Islands’ “de facto human rights agency for several years. This workshop has a chance to change this. It’s not that WUTMI isn¹t good, but the government should not defer the issue to an NGO.”
He said the government needs to build up its own human rights monitoring and protection capability.
Silk said “implementing international obligations entails difficult, focused, sustained and often thankless work. But it is not hopeless.”
Ultimately, the work to uphold human rights rests on integrating human rights obligations into national legislation and policy, using these to prevent and punish violations, he added.
The Marshall Islands, Kiribati and the Federated States of Micronesia will be reviewed in November by the Human Rights Council in Geneva, but the joint government and NGO report must be submitted shortly. Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Tonga have already completed their human rights reviews, said Fiji-based U.N. Human Rights officer Romulo Nayacalevu.
He emphasized that the report needs the input of not only government but non-government groups, churches and others in the community.
“The purpose of the review is not to criticize the government but to offer feedback to improve,” Nayacalevu said.
