Research team takes a lead role

  THE Research Team has taken the lead role in         preparation of an Alternative Report on the International Convention for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

A Think Tank of young people from various ethnic groups and work backgrounds has been put together to look at racial discrimination in the country.

CCF Researcher Netani Rika said discrimination had evolved over the years at an alarming rate.

“The big issues are well documented – for example land and the two major ethnic groups – but it’s the smaller things which we neglect at our peril,” Rika said.

“We don’t often discuss the neglect issues pertaining to the Solomon Island, Rabi or Kioa communities or the landless iTaukei.

“There are also issues of intra-racial discrimination within all our communities.”

Rika said it was important to recognize that the perception of younger people with regards to ethnic discrimination could be very different to the perceptions of the older generation.

In February 2012 the State will present a report on what it has done to improve on observations made by the previous ICERD Report in 2008.

NGOs are scheduled to present alternative reports four months after the State report.

CCF has been joined by Fiji Women’s Rights Movement, ECREA, FWCC, fem’link, Interfaith Fiji in a coalition on ICERD.

The Fiji Human Rights Commission and the United Nations also participate in the CSO discussions.