Parliament approves UN Convention Against Torture with some reservations

The United Nations Convention Against Torture has been unanimously approved with some reservations in parliament.

Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama said many countries like the United States, the United Kingdon, New Zealand, France, China and Israel have ratified the Convention with some reservations.

He said the Fijian government is doing the same as the country has strong laws against torture starting from the constitution.

Trade and Tourism Minister Faiyaz Koya said the constitution provides one of the strongest protections against torture in Fiji.

He said the Crimes Decree also carries life sentence for torture and any person can seek relief from the High Court for any breach of human rights.

Koya stressed that the convention cannot just be ratified blindly.

He also said that Fiji has all the mechanisms in place regarding compensation and human rights abuse complaints.

Opposition MP Semesa Karavaki said the opposition wants the UN Convention to be approved without any reservations.

However, Bainimarama said the government has assessed all the protections against torture provided in the constitution and other laws in the country.

He also questioned the Opposition members what they were doing when people were tortured during the 1987 and 2000 coups.

Bainimarama also said he was alerted that an Opposition MP had written to the Parliamentary Secretariat that he wanted to go to Geneva.

The government side also stated that it will not endorse the Parliamentary Standing Committee’s report on the proposed ratification of the UN Convention Against Torture.

Karavaki had questioned why the government has reservations on certain sections which deal with Fijians able to file a human right abuse complaint with the UN or the International Criminal Court.

He also questioned why there should be reservations dealing with other countries able to report Fiji to the UN regarding any human rights abuse.