Previous governments did not raise enough awareness on the 1997 Constitution

Postdate: 21/ 08/ 2008

The Citizens’ Constitutional Forum (CCF) believes that previous elected governments did not do enough to educate ordinary citizens on the content of the 1997 Constitution.

“The Draft Charter has probably been more widely distributed then the 1997 Constitution. However, the responsibility for more awareness of the Constitution does not lie with the Charter process, which only has the aim of preparing a document which can provide a progressive way forward for Fiji,” CCF Chief Executive Officer, Rev Akuila Yabaki said.

“It is the responsibility of elected governments and civil society organisations to raise greater awareness on what’s in the Constitution. Furthermore, citizens need to take interest in the affairs of the country and learn about the Constitution and the various legislations pertaining to Fiji,” Rev Yabaki said.

“CCF has been conducting education at the grassroots level to explain the Constitution in a simplified manner. We distributed little booklets called ‘Your Constitution, Your Rights’, which has simple translations of key parts of the Constitution,” Rev Yabaki said.

A people’s version of the Constitution has been distributed by CCF and is available for free in English, Fijian and Hindi languages from the CCF office in Suva.

For further information, please contact CCF on ph: 3308379, fax: 3308380.

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Rev Akuila Yabaki

Chief Executive Officer