Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Rights group and Trade Unions urge Fiji PM to lift restrictions

Posted at 22:49 on 05 December, 2012 UTC

Human Rights Watch and the International Trade Union Confederation have written to the Fiji interim leader calling on him to lift restrictions to ensure all stakeholders can be involved in drafting the new constitution.

The groups say the constitutional process needs to be changed to ensure the make up of the Constituent Assembly is transparent and that appointments are open to public debate.

Don Wiseman has more:

“They also want assurances there will be no immunity for members of the regime involved in rights abuses during or after the 2006 coup. The groups want the Public Order (Amendment) Decree revised to comply with international human rights standards for freedom of expression, assembly, and association. It says restrictive labour and media decrees must be amended to meet international obligations. It want an end to political interference in the judiciary and for security force personnel who have engaged in arbitrary arrest and detention, attacks on journalists and human rights defenders, and the physical abuse of detainees, to be prosecuted.”