PACIFIC ISLANDS ENDORSE MECHANISMS TO FOCUS ON REGIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES

10 June 2004

Representatives of 15 Pacific Island countries meeting in Fiji have called for more measures to make human rights a reality in the region.

Participants at the Pacific Human Rights Consultation held from 1 to 3 June in the Fijian capital Suva concluded that human rights issues in the Pacific region required greater attention. This could be achieved with the establishment and development of national human rights institutions and regional initiatives, they suggested.

Over 60 delegates took part in the meeting, organized by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions (APF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Commonwealth Secretariat, with financial support from the New Zealand Agency for International Development. Also participating were representatives from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's office for the Pacific States, the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, and the national human rights institutions of Australia, Fiji and New Zealand. The Fiji Human Rights Commission and the Pacific Islands Forum hosted the consultation.

The consultation agreed that addressing the impact of human rights on the lives of Pacific peoples throughout the region "is best achieved by collaborative and supportive efforts of civil society organizations, national human rights commissions, international agencies, the private sector and Governments".

Participants also reaffirmed the universality, indivisibly, interdependence and interrelatedness of all human rights -- civil, cultural, economic, political and social.

The consultation participants:

-- Acknowledged that it is more constructive to assist nations in preventing human rights abuses than awaiting tragic consequences, which require significant intervention, and called on the international community to take proactive measures to assist Pacific Island Nations in promoting and protecting human rights;

-- Emphasized the need to develop a culture of human rights both among the general public and in the official sector (including the executive arm of government, the legislature and the judiciary) through wide dissemination of information about human rights (including through grass-roots work), highlighting the role of national human rights institutions;

-- And highlighted the financial and human constraints faced by the Pacific Island States in their efforts to promote and protect human rights and called upon international and regional agencies to provide technical assistance, capacity building and training.

Participants also made a range of recommendations to Governments, regional
and international organizations and civil society groups, including:

-- Urging Pacific Island Governments to ratify international human rights treaties without reservation, and where they have not ratified these treaties, to strive to protect basic human rights through entrenchment in constitutions or through appropriate legislation, implementing relevant programmes and policies and through education;

-- Encouraging, and offering assistance to, Pacific Island Governments in the establishment of independent national human rights institutions;

-- And also encouraging Pacific Island Governments to support and contribute to the work of the United Nations ad hoc committee on the elaboration of a draft convention on disabilities.

Recognizing the importance of implementing basic minimum human rights norms and standards, participants called on donors and regional and international agencies to assist Pacific Island Nations in applying these standards through a range of initiatives such as:

-- Establishing a Pacific Peoples NGO / Civil Society Human Rights Network;

-- Establishing a regional secretariat for all Pacific peoples human rights organizations;

-- And dispatching an OHCHR adviser as part of the United Nations country team based in Fiji to identify technical cooperation needs in the Pacific and work with all relevant human rights partners.

Participants suggested that a roundtable meeting be convened to follow up on the recommendations from this consultation and a further roundtable specifically on the establishment of National Institutions within 12 months.

NGOs from the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Timor-Leste and New Zealand attended the consultation.

Governments represented at the Consultations included Australia, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

The Consultation was co-organized by OHCHR, the Asia-Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions, the Commonwealth Secretariat, and UNDP.


* *** *