Despite criticisms of the report by the interim government and the Fiji Human Rights Commission, FLS president Dorsami Naidu said the 2008 report was a fair analysis.
“My view is that the report is very fair and does not sensationalize anything. I also think that the comment made by the interim Attorney General (Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum) regarding the report is laughable.”
Sayed-Khaiyum had rubbished the U.S State Department’s claim that the interim government has interfered with the independence of the judiciary.
The report said that while the law provides for an independent judiciary, during 2008, the interim government interfered with judicial independence in practice, citing the suspension of then-Chief Justice Daniel Fatiaki.
The report highlighted, among other matters, the appointment of High Court judges to sit on the Appeal Court panel, and the prohibition of the International Bar Association delegation and U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges to visit the country to evaluate the independence of the judiciary.
Naidu said “I am not saying that the interim government interfered with the judiciary. I will have to do my investigation on that, but if you look at what happened — the deportation of the Australian publishers, the way the stay was granted in the People’s Charter case — it is quite easy to assume that.”
The Fiji Human Rights Commission has labeled the damning latest U.S. human rights report on Fiji “a piece of rubbish.”
“It is a piece of rubbish considering the fact that the United States does not like to point finger at themselves but are so fast at pointing at others,” said FHRC chairman Shaista Shameem.
According to the 2008 human rights report released by the U.S. Department of State, Fiji’s interim government denied citizens the right to change their government peacefully, engaged in intimidation of the media and restricted the right to assemble peacefully.
It added that the judiciary was subject to political interference.
The report further highlights problems during the year included poor prison conditions, attacks against religious facilities, government corruption, deep ethnic divisions, violence and discrimination against women, and sexual exploitation of children.
Shameem said the U.S. State Department did not consult the relevant people before publishing its report.
“The prisons commissioner was not consulted for the report on the prisons, i was not consulted for human rights issues even though we make annual reports and the attorney general and the chief justice were not consulted for the judiciary,” she said.
