COMMITTEE ON RIGHTS OF CHILD STARTS CONSIDERATION OF REPORT OF FIJI

HR/CRC/98/24
25 May 1998

Fiji's laws and policies might be colonial and archaic, but in general, they were in harmony with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a Fijian Government delegation said this morning before a United Nations panel in charge of monitoring the protection of children.

According to the Fijian officials, since the ratification of the Convention in 1993, Fiji had been implementing its provisions through commissions of inquiry, law reform and the Children's Coordinating Committee. Among other measures, they said, several steps had been taken to tackle corporal punishment and sexual abuse of children.

The Fijian delegation, made up of Razia Imrama Shafiq, State Prosecutor with the Director of Public Prosecutions, and Asinate Boladuadua, Director of Primary and Preventive Health Services, spoke before the Committee on the Rights of the Child during the presentation of Fiji's report on application of the Convention. During the ensuing discussion, Committee experts praised Fiji for the good progress made on behalf of children, but added that many things still needed to be changed. They asked for information about, among other things, incorporating the Convention into domestic law; the tourism industry and sexual abuse of children; the ratification of other human rights treaties; juvenile courts, and the dissemination of the provisions of the Convention.

As one of the 191 States parties to the Convention, Fiji must report periodically to the Committee on how it promotes and protects children's rights.

The Committee resumes its work at 3 p.m. to continue its consideration of Fiji's report.

Report of Fiji

The report (document CRC/C/28/Add.7) says that the State ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1993 and established a Coordinating Committee on Children to consider ways in which it can incorporate the provisions of the Convention into the laws and procedures of the country. Furthermore, there are numerous legal provisions in Fiji which provide for the protection, care, health and social welfare of children. But while the legal provisions exist, constraints relating to the implementation of some of the legislation contribute to a few of the existing problems in relation to children. Through the Constitution, children are granted freedom of expression, thought, conscience, religion, association, peaceful assembly, privacy and access to appropriate information.
Various provisions in the law offer full protection against torture or other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment. However, there is no legal aid system that is available to children who are in trouble with the law. There is no legal definition of the age at which children no longer need parental consent to receive certain health services or when they have a complete right to privacy and confidentiality. Criminal proceedings are often lacking in providing sufficient protection to children from exposure to continued abuse or violence.

The report states that other constraints on assistance to children include the lack of reporting of child abuse as well as the lack of counselling facilities for child victims of abuse. Moreover, while children have access to as good a health system as is possible with the available resources, constraints exist in terms of finance, staffing, supplies and equipment, as well as the geographic characteristics of the small island nation. Education is not compulsory; compulsory education and free education are seen to go together, and the cost of providing free education to all children is prohibitive. None the less, cost-free education is provided to all children in primary schools, which cater mostly for ages 6 to 13; the aim is to eventually make education compulsory.

There is legislation to protect children from various forms of exploitation, the report continues. However, in recent years there have been increasing reports of crimes against children. Existing legislation prohibits drug abuse and sale of liquor to people under the age of 18, but teenage alcohol abuse is commonplace and drug abuse appears to be rising.

Introduction of the Report

RAZIA IMRAMA SHAFIQ, State Prosecutor with the Director of Public Prosecutions of Fiji, said since the ratification of the Convention in 1993, Fiji had been implementing its provisions through commissions of inquiry, law reform and the Children's Coordinating Committee. Fiji's laws and policies might be colonial and archaic, but in general they were in harmony with the Convention. The Children's Coordinating Committee was made up of Government officials and members of non-governmental organizations. The Committee was divided into four sub-committees on health, education, legislation and welfare.

Ms. Shafiq said although the Government had been slow in the process of implementation of the Convention, several steps had none the less been taken. One of the major changes concerned testimony given by children in court and respecting the views of children. The family law area was also undergoing changes, while a Child Welfare Unit had been set up to investigate child abuse. And a Child Sexual Offense Unit had been set up in each police department, although there had been some problem obtaining funds to set up a medical examination room in each police department. The Children's Coordinating Committee had no budget and therefore had some financial restraints on its work. Before ratification of the Convention, corporal punishment was allowed in schools, but now the Cabinet was discussing a recommendation to ban this practice. The Government had also
improved its gathering of statistics on children, including child abuse cases.

ASINATE BOLADUADUA, Director of Primary and Preventive Health Services in Fiji, said the Government was the main provider of health services. The health of Fijian children was considered good at the moment; the infant mortality rate was below 20 per 1,000 and the mortality rate for children under five was 33 per 1,000. The Government had also improved the immunization programme. One of the problems the Ministry of Health faced was that of logistics and getting staffers from one island to the other. The budget allocated to health was 9 per cent of the total Government budget.

Discussion

Committee experts said they were glad to hear about Fiji's good intentions and good progress in some fields. However, there were still many things that needed to be changed. The delegation had spoken about steps taken to combat corporal punishment and sexual abuse. But how would authorities proceed with adopting laws to address the issue of corporal punishment?
The delegation had mentioned the problems in financing some projects, like medical examination rooms, an expert pointed out. How did the economic situation affect the implementation of the Convention? Tourism was one of the major sources of revenues, but tourists were connected with sexual abuse of children. It seemed the authorities were already tackling that question.

Experts praised the delegation of Fiji for speaking openly about sexual abuse of children and corporal punishment. However, experts noted that the delegation said the Children's Coordinating Committee had no special budget. How did it work, and how were its administrative costs paid? What were its powers? It did not seem that authorities had finished harmonizing the domestic laws with the Convention. What was the timetable for this? It seemed that the policies to care for child victims were in place, but the budgetary problems represented obstacles for their implementation. What was the Government doing to reallocate the budget? What was Fiji's programme for ratifying other human rights treaties?

More information was asked about the powers of the family courts and the plan to merge them with juvenile courts. Little mention was made about non-governmental organizations and their role, experts said. Did the Government discuss this report with these organizations, parliamentary committees or other bodies? Clarification was requested about the claim by the coalition of NGOs of Fiji that the dissemination of the Convention had not been carried out and that funds for this were spent on consultants and civil servants.

Fiji had many minorities, said an expert. Had the Convention been translated into minority languages? Was there any discrimination concerning the rights of minority children? Could the Convention be invoked before national courts? Was the teaching of the Convention obligatory in schools? Why was incorporating the Convention into domestic law such a lengthy process, and what were difficulties facing this process?

Committee experts asked for more information about the age of marriage and age of work. Fiji had not ratified International Labour Office Convention No. 138 on the minimum working age. Did it intend to do so? One expert was worried that many girls were dropping out of school and working in the informal sector. Children between the ages of 17 and 18 were not protected by the juvenile system. Was anything being done about this? Were there any plans to raise the very low age of criminal responsibility, at present set at 10 to 12 years.

Not all children went to school, and many adolescents needed counselling without their parents, for example related to AIDS tests and sexual relationships, an expert said. Therefore not all health issues could be addressed in schools, and perhaps there was a need for special consultation centres for children which were monitored. The Committee experts said the report regretted that not enough was being done for the education of children with disabilities and noted the importance of including them in the normal school system.

In response to questions, the delegation said corporal punishment was not a legal form of punishment and was itself punishable under the penal code. However, authorities were aware that the problem of this form of discipline was ingrained in Fijian culture, and that there was a need to change the attitude of the community before the issue was tackled. Authorities were carrying out campaigns to educate parents, teachers and other members of the community against the harms of corporal punishment. There had recently been several cases concerning corporal punishment by teachers and parents in courts, and prison sentences were sometimes handed down.

Fiji was a developing country, and it had been given assistance from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to successfully carry out its immunization programme, the delegation indicated. The Government had given priority to education and health as far as budget allocations were concerned. The delegation was optimistic that the Government would continue to sustain its programmes.

The delegation said the Children's Coordinating Committee was mainly an advisory and monitoring body. It did not have a budget allocated to it, but relied on funds given by organizations like the United Nations Development Programme, UNICEF and others. The committee also relied in part on internal budgets of other departments, like those of health and education. The Committee worked effectively but it was aware that it had to look into the funding problem.

The laws of Fiji were generally in harmony with the Convention, the delegation said, but there was still need for further work. For example, there was a need to implement the recommendation concerning changing the ages of children when involved in sexual offenses. Changes in this area should be seen by the end of the year. There had not been a recommendation to combine the juvenile and family law courts. At present, there were no separate juvenile courts, but when a magistrate court dealt with juveniles, it closed the trials. Authorities realized the need for separate juvenile courts and family law courts.

Concerning the role of NGOs, the delegation said they were fairly represented in the Children's Coordinating Committee. NGOs had been involved in the preparation of the report for the Committee on the Rights of the Child. The delegation refuted the allegations that the funds provided for the dissemination of the Convention had been spent on consultants; the Convention had been simplified and translated into the two main languages in Fiji. It was disseminated in schools and had been incorporated into national curriculum.

It was difficult to invoke the Convention in courts because it had not yet been incorporated into national laws, the officials indicated. However, the provisions of the Convention were reflected in some domestic laws. Fiji was aware of its international obligations and realized the need for it to ratify different human rights conventions. However, it had been slow in making progress.

There had never been discrimination against children of minority groups, said the delegation. Concerning the training of judges, police and lawyers in children's affairs and human rights, this had been stepped up in the past two years with, among other measures, annual training workshops.

The delegation said the major problem concerning the incorporation of the Convention into domestic law was the allocation of resources. However, steps had been taken and it should not be long before changes were seen. Also, in domestic legislation, there were a number of definitions of children, with legislation for different domains having their own definition of the child. This was one of the areas which needed to be looked at. The delegation agreed that the age of 10 was very young for criminal responsibility; recommendations to raise it had been sent to the law reform committee. The employment act provided for the protection of children and did not permit the employment of children under the age of 12. Children could not work more than six hours a day. There had been
no recommendations to raise the minimum age for work.

The age of consent for sexual relations was 16, the delegation said. If sexual contact with a girl above 16 against her will was carried out, it was considered rape. Any girl under 16 who carried out a sexual act could not be considered to have consented to it, even if it was her choice; that was considered defilement and was punishable by law. There had been recommendations to widen the scope of laws concerning sexual relations, and to include boy children in them.

There was not minimum age for giving testimony in court, said the delegation. The testimony of children was accepted as long as they knew what an oath was and they had some understanding of court procedures.

The delegation said discrimination against children with HIV/AIDS was prohibited. To date, there were only 38 cases of AIDS in Fiji, only two who were children. The authorities were working to prevent discrimination against children born out of wedlock, and this was one of the objectives of the reform of the family law. The family law still referred to children born out of wedlock as illegitimate and this should be removed before other reforms were carried out. Discrimination aroused in terms of religion was problematic as children born out of wedlock were not 'accepted' by the majority Christian religion and other religions. Children born out of wedlock did inherit property, however.

Fiji had schools for disabled children, including one for the blind, as well as early-intervention schools, said the officials. At Fijian homes, children were taught to respect their elders and to accept anything they were told; that was the present behavioural form and authorities were working hard to try and implement community awareness programmes to change this behaviour, although it would take time to change such traditions. Children's participation in schools was also limited by the idea that the school teachers were elders.