Friday 20 July 2012, Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), Brisbane, Australia –

Dame Carol Kidu, former Leader of the Opposition in Papua New Guinea stated that, "Pacific countries are fighting issues of commonality such as climate change and violence against women despite the diversity of culture and language in the region".

Dame Kidu's remarks opened the Regional Human Rights Consultation for Members of Parliament held in Brisbane this week.

Dame Kidu shared the challenges she encountered in implementing human rights approaches as a PNG parliamentarian and emphasised that legislative reform especially in human rights related issues demanded courage of the parliamentarians and sensitising of one's constituency of the relevant human rights issue.

Dame Kidu highlighted that, "globalisation poses a greater threat to the region than colonisation and therefore it is imperative that human rights standards are adhered to."

She relayed her experience as the former PNG Minister of Community Development in which she was instrumental in lobbying for the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child; adding that national ownership of such international treaties is vital.

Members of Parliament from the Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Niue, PNG, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu are being exposed to critical human rights issues facing the Pacific region such as: climate change, sexual and gender based violence, national and regional human rights commissions, HIV and inclusivity of persons with disabilities at the 4th Pacific Consultation on Advancing Legislative Reform in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

The consultation is aimed at providing an opportunity for Pacific Parliamentarians to gain further information on, and discuss current and critical human rights issues in their national parliaments.

The week long consultation ended with a mock parliament in which regional Parliamentarians raised and debated human rights issues.

The consultation is currently underway at the Park Regis North Quay Hotel in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia from 16 to 20 July 2012.

The annual consultation is facilitated by the SPC RRRT team in collaboration with the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat and in partnership with UN Women and the Asia Pacific Forum for National Human Rights Institutions.

The consultation is made possible thanks to the generous funding of AusAID.

For more information, contact Lionel Aingimea ([email protected])

Elizabeth Fey (L), Chief John Chedak (C) and Dorosday Kenneth, Director of Department of Women's Affairs (R) discuss legislative measures that could be taken to increase womens participation in parliament in Vanuatu

Tuesday 5 June 2012, Secretariat of the Pacific Community, Port Vila -

A coalition of chiefs, women's advocates, union representatives and government officers have come together in Port Vila to plan strategies, share information and launch three separate and ambitious legislative lobbying campaigns in Vanuatu.

Their aims are to increase women's participation in political life, reform outdated sexual offence provisions in the penal code, and address gender discrimination and parental leave issues.

This platform for action was hammered out at the Leadership and Legislative Change workshop held at the Police Training College, Port Vila over the past week. The workshop was organised by the Department of Women's Affairs, in partnership with the Secretariat of the Pacific Community Regional Rights Resource Team (SPC RRRT).

The workshop provides opportunities for communities to realise their ability to exercise leadership around legislative change.

Chief John Chedak from Tongoa Island and Elizabeth Fey, a community paralegal from Ohlen, have mounted a campaign for the inclusion of temporary special measures in the Peoples' Representation Act to increase the number of women entering parliament.

A second campaign, supported by representatives from the Police, the Department of Women's Affairs and Live and Learn, a non-governmental organisation, has targeted Vanuatu's outdated sexual offence laws.

Their aim is to have the penal code reformed so that the law becomes stronger and is better able to protect women, children and persons with disabilities from sexual violence.

Police Officer Anne Marie Simon cited the increasing incidence of sexual violence involving women, children and the elderly as a reason why penal code reform needs to happen sooner rather than later.

Also attending the workshop was Loreen Bani, a representative of the Vanuatu Workers' Union. Bani has launched a campaign to address gender-based discrimination in the Employment Relations Bill, which is currently going through a process of consultation.

Each campaign brings together representatives from government and non-governmental organisations and receives support from the Department of Women's Affairs and the Ministry of Justice. Mentoring support is provided by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community Regional Rights Resource Team in partnership with the Fiji Women's Rights Movement and with support provided by the Pacific Leadership Program.

The campaigns will seek to advocate on behalf of women, increase community support, and create sufficient momentum to achieve legislative change in Vanuatu.

For more information, contact Sean Hobbs (Tel. +679 330 5582; email: [email protected])

PRESS RELEASE – Sept 2011

High Level representatives from the Justice, Health and Civil Society Organizations from Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu gather in Nadi to share their experience on human rights compliant HIV Policies and Laws.

The 3 days 'writeshop' (11-14 September, 2011) is organized by a partnership between the UNDP, UNAIDS, PIAF (Pacific Islands AIDS Foundation) and the Pacific Regional Rights Resource Team of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC/RRRT).

The objective of the workshop is to provide support and technical assistance that is required to advance human rights compliant HIV legislative change by analysing the current legislative status per country, providing various models of legislative reform, looking at the rationale for human rights compliant legislative responses to address the spread of HIV and writing a policy papers to step up progress to legislative reform.

While most HIV interventions target individual behavioral change, it is equally important, if not more, that the norms and structures that shape these behaviours are addressed. There is extensive and longstanding evidence that strategic structural investments can contribute to 'break through' progress.

It is expected that the delegates will leave the 'writeshop' with a strategic plan to implement the policy framework which will work towards guiding the respective countries in their response to HIV.

Garry Wiseman, Manager of UNDP Pacific Centre in his opening remarks highlighted that "...some countries in the region have already passed human rights-based legislation to better address HIV and AIDS: PNG, FSM and more recently Fiji. Others are in the process to start drafting new HIV laws such as Tuvalu and Cook Islands; and some are starting to develop new policy framework to do. This week will be an opportunity to share lessons learned and help each other."

The event represents an opportunity for intra-regional cooperation on these issues and uses an interactive format to ensure countries gain maximum benefit from experience sharing.

The event includes the participation of people living with HIV who are taking an active role in the policy dialogue.

June 2011, Port Vila

The Director of Foreign Affairs informed representatives from various government departments, ministries and civil society that Vanuatu has ratified more than 107 treaties and conventions, and they must collaborate to address the task of making a stock take on the implementation of these instruments.

The participants were informed by the Director that with conventions, treaties and conventions, there is usually some responsibility that countries take on to show their commitment to their citizens. The Director stated that in order for any convention to have any meaning to ni-Vanuatu, the principles and standards set out in the convention, or the treaty must be implemented nationally through some action, usually through a policy or law.

The director reminded the participants that treaty reporting where countries engage at the UN level with treaty bodies or committees is also an opportunity where Vanuatu is making a stock take on its own human rights situation. This is also as opportunity where Vanuatu can share its successes with the world and seek for guidance for other issues at the international level.

The UN has nine core human rights treaties, five of which have been ratified by Vanuatu.

Vanuatu has reported to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women in 2007, and is currently drafting another report for the same committee. Other Conventions which Vanuatu will be reporting to are the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Convention against Torture, other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the Convention and the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights.

Lionel Aingimea a Senior Trainer at the Pacific Regional Rights Resource Team which is part of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community said

Over the next five days, the participants will discuss how Vanuatu can move forward to strategize how it will better coordinate its reports to UN treaty bodies and also discuss the technicalities of what goes into the drafting of reports to treaty bodies for UN human rights conventions. These discussions will largely be based on the UN new reporting guidelines which are set out to make the reporting process easier for counties.

The workshop is a collaboration between the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Pacific Regional Rights Resource Team of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (RRRT/SPC).

For more information, please contact Josephine Kalsuak at [email protected] or phone 25099.

13 OCTOBER 2010 PORT VILA (SPC)

Vanuatu's Foreign Affairs and External Trade minister Joe Natuman, and Dr Jimmie Rodgers, Director General of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) have signed a host country agreement to establish an SPC country office in Port Vila.

This is the second country office to be established, the first in Solomon Islands in early 2009.

The new office in Vanuatu is a fulfilment of the instructions by the SPC governing body, the SPC Conference at its 2005 meeting in Palau. It directed that the organisation decentralise the delivery of its services beyond Noumea and its regional office in Suva, to move services closer to the people.

A major criteria for the establishment of a 'country office' is the size and complexity of the programme of assistance SPC provides to the country.

In addition, the member must indicate its desire to have a country office established and that it was willing to meet the costs for the office space in the country.

The country office becomes an official SPC focal point for the Vanuatu government.

The presence in-country will enhance more regular consultations between the host government and SPC on programme planning and implementation.

The office will coordinate the monitoring and reporting of all services provided by the various SPC programmes in Vanuatu.

The coordinator for the country office is the Director General's representative in the country and reports to the Director General.

SPC currently has a substantial programme of assistance to Vanuatu covering a wide range of sectors including in Agriculture, Education (TVET and skills development), Fisheries, Forestry, Health, Human Rights, Maritime and Transport and Statistics / demography to name a few.

SPC provides approximately two million USD each year in technical, scientific, social and economic development programmes to Vanuatu. Of this, at least one million USD each year is for health alone.

In addition to the specific country focus, the Vanuatu office will also hosts part of SPC's Regional Rights Resources Team (RRRT) which undertake capacity building in human rights in the region.

Press Release – 15 December 2009

'Violence against women costs the Australian economy close to $8.1 billion per year,' said Queensland's Attorney General Hon.

Cameron Dick MP at the opening of an annual consultation with regional members of parliament in Brisbane, Australia held by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community's Regional Rights Resource Team (SPC / RRRT).

Twenty-five MPs from Tonga, Vanuatu, Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea (PNG), Samoa, Tuvalu, Nauru and Kiribati attended this year's event, which focused on violence against women legislation.

The Attorney General stated that he was 'pleased that so many fellow parliamentarians from the Pacific Island countries have shown their commitment to improving the lives of Pacific people.' He made the comments in light of the recent data revealing extremely high prevalence rates of violence against women in the Pacific.

Both Kiribati and Solomon Islands were amongst the countries with the highest rates in a 17-country study by the World Health Organisation. In this study, only Ethiopia and Peru surpassed Kiribati and Solomon Islands in prevalence rates. PNG, Fiji Islands and Samoa have also been shown to have high prevalence rates in other studies.

In a conference room packed with members of parliament from nine Pacific countries, Queensland's Attorney General quoted the recent Cairns Communiqué in which Forum Leaders addressed the issue of sexual and gender-based violence and called for a range of measures to address it, including legal measures.

The Hon. Cameron Dick reiterated the stance taken by the Forum leaders by acknowledging that sexual and gender-based violence 'is now widely recognised as a risk to human security and a potential destabilising factor for communities and societies alike.'

The acknowledgment from Forum leaders is 'most welcome', he said because violence against women is a serious global problem that affects every country.

In 2006, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution calling on all member states and the United Nations system to intensify efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women. Such violence has compounding human rights implications; causing trauma to women, families and communities. Sexual and gender-based violence is both a symptom and a cause of gender inequality and discrimination.

The Minister of Justice from the Republic of Nauru, Hon. Matthew Batsiua, stated

The Hon. Cameron Dick once served as the Attorney General of Tuvalu and was quite proud of that fact. He jokingly said that

He also said that he was proud that Tuvalu was 'mixing it with the big guns in Copenhagen.' The consultation in Brisbane will also discuss human rights implications of climate change.

The members of parliament have a week to look at human rights issues, including violence against women and HIV legislation, the new compulsory Universal Periodic Review process and the potential of a regional human rights mechanism to serve the needs of Pacific Island governments and peoples.

The consultation is funded and supported by SPC / RRRT, the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAid), the New Zealand Agency for International Development (NZAID), the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Pacific Islands HIV and STI Response Fund.

The Pacific Regional Rights Resource Team (RRRT) is a programme under the Social Resources Division of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community. For more information regarding this event, please contact Gwen Philips at [email protected] or Imrana Jalal at [email protected].

18 February 2009, Secretariat of the Pacific Community, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

They came in all colours, shapes and sizes, and in all manner of dress, both traditional and modern, veiled and unveiled, religious and non-religious, to begin a global campaign called Musawah.

Organised by the Malaysian Muslim feminist organisation, Sisters in Islam (SIS), Musawah, which means 'equality' in Arabic, brought together Muslim feminists, women's rights and human rights activists and lawyers to debate and discuss justice and equality in the family law of Islam.

Gender and Human Rights Advisor, Imrana Jalal, from the Secretariat of the Pacific Community's Regional Rights Resource Team (RRRT/SPC), was one of the panel of speakers at the 250-strong gathering at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which included the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, Yakin Ertürk, who was the keynote speaker.

Jalal, who was invited as an expert in legislative change, led two sessions on changing family laws in environments unfavourable to gender equality. She said the Musawah movement was only at its beginning but would soon be a strong global force.

Musawah will span 50 countries with the goal of reforming family laws in a Muslim context. It works on the premise that gender equality and human rights is consistent with Islamic doctrine. The movement calls for equality, non-discrimination, justice and dignity as the basis of all human relations; full and equal citizenship for every individual; and marriage and family relations based on principles of equality and justice.

Musawah is based on the principle that equality in the family is possible through a framework that is consistent with Islamic teachings, universal human rights principles, fundamental rights guarantees, and the lived realities of women and men.

Jalal shared the strategies she had learned in the passing of the Family Law Act in Fiji.

She told the BBC that although Fiji was a small country with a Muslim minority and without a parallel religious legal system, the lessons learnt on passing good legislation could be adapted and transferred to other parts of the globe.

RRRT works with partners in 9 focus countries; Cook Islands, Fiji , Kiribati , Samoa , Solomon Islands , Tonga, Tuvalu, Nauru and Vanuatu, by offering training packages and expert advice to partners which aids in the development of human rights advocacy, lobbying, mobilisation strategies and the drafting of national human rights legislation. RRRT provides human rights training, technical support, and policy and advocacy services tailored specifically for the Pacific region and with a mission to "seek a Pacific region that is respected for the quality of its governance, the sustainable management of its resources, the full observance of democratic values and for its defence and promotion of human rights".

For more information, please contact Sandra Bernklau, SPC RRRT Programme Manager (+679) 3305582 or email: [email protected].