NATION

Ambassador Khan Tells How We Won Membership In UN Human Rights Council

As a Pacific Island nation, we continue to punch above our weight in terms of playing a leadership role in the in­ternational arena. From COP23 presidency, Presidency of the UN
18 Oct 2018 11:00
Ambassador Khan Tells How We Won Membership In UN Human Rights Council
COP23 Negotiator, Ambassador Nazhat Shameem Khan while speaking on the progress of the climate change negotiations and preparations for the October Pre-COP Meeting in Fiji and COP23 at Government Buidling in Suva on August 10, 2017. Photo: Jone Luvenitoga.

As a Pacific Island nation, we continue to punch above our weight in terms of playing a leadership role in the in­ternational arena.

From COP23 presidency, Presidency of the UN General Assembly, to chairing the G77, it is safe to say that we are a trailblazing na­tion. And once again this rings true after Fiji was offered a seat in the United Nations Hu­man Rights Council.

Fiji was elected to the United Nations Hu­man Rights Council last week at the UN Gen­eral Assembly. Fiji received 187 votes. The membership is for a period of three years beginning on January 1, 2019.

Eighteen new members were elected: Ar­gentina, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bang­ladesh, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Czech Republic, Denmark, Eritrea, Fiji, In­dia, Italy, Philippines, Somalia, Togo, and Uruguay.

The Human Rights Council is an inter-gov­ernmental body within the United Nations system made up of 47 States responsible for the promotion and protection of all human rights around the globe.

This is an interview with our Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, NAZHAT SHAMEEM KHAN who is at the helm of this historic achieve­ment.

When did Fiji’s en­gagement with the United Nations Human Rights Council begin and how?

A: Fiji opened its Mission in Geneva in 2014. Prior to that we had only attended Human Rights Coun­cil (HRC) meetings as an observer, and only for meetings of relevance to visiting delegations. Thus, our engagement with the Council was limited.

What were the steps taken by Fiji to be the member of the UNHRC?

A: After the open­ing of our Mission, we began to attend meetings (HRC) reg­ularly, to attend the negotiation of Resolu­tions and to co-sponsor those important to Fiji, and to attend side events.

We were also asked to chair many of these events and we even chaired the Council it­self in its High level Panel Discussions on two occasions.

Our Universal periodic Review (2nd Cycle) was also in 2014, and was a success because of the number of recom­mendations which we ac­cepted, and because of the high level of the delega­tion which participated from Fiji.

The delegation was led by the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum and included the Chief Justice Anthony Gates and the Director of Public Prosecutions Christopher Pryde.

As a result of the UPR, Fiji agreed to abolish the death penalty, to ratify all core human rights conventions by 2020, to ratify United Nations Convention Against Torture (UNCAT), and to effectively imple­ment the National Gender Policy. We have ratified almost all the Conven­tions (Convention on the Rights of Persons Living with Disability, UNCAT, International Cov­enant on Civil and Political Rights, International Cov­enant on Civil and Political Rights) with two more due next year, and have abolished the death penalty as well as adopting a mecha­nism for implement­ing the gender policy.

Of course implement­ing rights is always work in progress, and also reflects the fluid way that rights are interpreted by the courts.

However, the fact that our courts can use international law and jurisprudence to inter­pret rights in Fiji, is a great advan­tage and ensures that Fiji truly respects the universal­ity of human rights.

How does Fiji view its membership of the UNHRC?

A: With such progress, including the strong focus on access to justice and removing the risk of torture in Police procedures by launching the first hour procedure in col­laboration with the Legal Aid Commission, and by starting the video recording of inter­views at the Police stations, Fiji could look at membership of the UN Human Rights Coun­cil. We were using our presence in Geneva and at the Council to improve the implemen­tation of rights in Fiji, and to increase our ratification statistics.

In addition to this, in our interventions in Geneva, Fiji led a new conversation on hu­man rights and climate change. Climate jus­tice was a popular topic for civil society but had not entered the conversation in main­stream human rights.

Fiji started speaking on this at the Council, co-sponsoring side events on this, and signed the Geneva Pledge of a group of countries led by Costa Rica and Switzerland commit­ted to climate change and human rights.

In becoming a member of the Council, Fiji became the first PSIDS to become a member and only the third Small Island Developing State after Maldives and Mauritius.

What is next for Fiji in the UNHRC?

A: Of course the hard work starts now. As members we now have a right to vote on reso­lutions on the Council on some very difficult situations around the world.

Our policy will be to be constructive, to always rely on the empirical evidence pre­sented by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights mechanisms, to ensure that we always vote to strengthen and validate human rights globally.

We will also continue to ensure that climate change and human rights is a continuous focus at the Council, and that there is coher­ence amongst all UN bodies in relation to human rights and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s), and in the symbiotic relation­ship between civil and political rights and social economic and cultural rights.

Fiji sees national development and human rights to be inseparable. Fiji already has a strong and friendly relationship with all member states of the Human Rights Council and with all Missions in Geneva.

However, we will strengthen our relation­ship with the Commonwealth through the Commonwealth Small States Office in Ge­neva, and with the Small States led by Singa­pore in Geneva.

We will continue to engage closely with other SIDS in Geneva, and with civil society in Geneva. We hope to lend a strong, progres­sive but moderate voice to the meetings and negotiations.

Edited by Ranoba Baoa

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