Fiji Human Rights Commission

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The Fiji Human Rights Commission is an independent statutory body which was established under the 1997 Constitution of the Republic of the Fiji Islands. Its role is to protect and promote human rights for the people of Fiji and to help build and strengthen a culture of human rights in Fiji.

The mandate of the Commission is to educate the general public about human rights and to make recommendations to the government about matters affecting human rights. The Commission protects Human Rights mainly through the complaints and legal divisions. It assists the public on complaints of allegations of breaches of human rights, Its job is to receive complaints, classify it, investigate these complaints and to resolve these complaints by conciliation and to refer unresolved complaints to the Commission's legal division for court action, and to refer complaints to the necessary ministry or department if the complaint is not within the Commission's jurisdiction. The interim Prime minister Frank Bainimarama has issued an assurance that his government is committed to upholding the law and protecting human rights as in the constitution. [1]

In 2007, the Fiji Human Rights Commission created controversy when its chairwoman Dr. Shaista Shameem expressed support for the 2006 coup. Consequently, the FHRC was suspended from the International Co-ordinating Committee, which oversees human rights organisations. A review by the ICC stated that the FHRC "lacked both credibility and independence" ^[1].

The FHRC later commissioned an inquiry into the 2006 general election which had brought the subsequently deposed Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase to power. The Commission of Inquiry delivered a report which "identifie[d] deficiencies and anomalies at every stage of the election process" ^[2], thus affirming that the democratic legitimacy of Prime Minister Qarase's deposed government had been questionable.

In October 2007, Dr. Shameen criticised United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour for allegedly "only hearing one side of the story regarding what was happening in Fiji" - that is, for criticising Commodore Bainimarama's interim government ^[3].