Nazhat Shameem

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Nazhat Shameem is a Fijian judge. She was appointed to the bench in 1999 as Fiji's first, and 2007 so far only, Indo-Fijian female High Court judge. Justice Shameem is in the criminal jurisdiction of the High Court of Fiji.

Shameem is best known for her trials since the 2000 Fijian coup d'état conviction and sentencing of perpetrators of the 2000 Fijian coup d'état, in which the government of Mahendra Chaudhry was deposed in May 2000. She also heard a number of cases in which she was very critical of prison conditions for remand prisoners in Fiji. In 2005, she declared the remand centre in Suva inhumane and degrading and in breach of the Fiji Constitution. She also heard a case on mandatory imprisonment for drug offenders in 2001, and declared such sentences as disproportionatly severe and in breach of Section 25 of the Constitution. The Drugs decree was later repealed by Parliament.

In 2004, Justice Shameem was a keynote speaker at the Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Commission's international conference 'Beyond Bullying : Sex/Gender, Race/Ethnicity, Class/Status - Celebrating Difference, Embracing Equality', held in Hobart, Tasmania. Her colleague, Justice Tony Gates (in 2007 Acting Chief Justice of the Fiji High Court) presented the after dinner speech at the conference.

[edit] Background

From 1994 to 1999 she was Director of Public Prosecutions after serving as a prosecutor for ten years. She is a graduate of Sussex University and Cambridge University, and is a Barrister of the Inner Temple in London. She holds a Master of Laws and a Master of Philosophy in criminology. She is a former chairperson of Fiji Children's Coordinating Committee for Children and is particularly interested in the way the justice system affects women and children.

Shameem is the sister of Shaista Shameem, Director of the Fiji Human Rights Commission , Dr. Nikhat Shameem, an academic in the field of linguistics, and Dr. Raffat Shameem, a Cardiologist.