THE Fiji Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Commission (FHRADC) suffered “reputational damage” after the 2006 coup after it was observed the Commissioners were in “favour of the appointing authority”.
FHRADC chairperson Pravesh Sharma told The Fiji Times online portal The Lens@177 they were currently in the process of having the commissioners’ posts advertised to ensure that persons be appointed on merit.
THE Fiji Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Commission (FHRADC) has recommended that commissioners’ posts be advertised and that persons be appointed on merit to avoid the perception that successful applicants are in “favour of the appointing authority”.
Mr Sharma told The Fiji Times online portal The Lens@177 that the current manner of hand-picking commissioners was problematic when fulfilling their obligations to the Global Alliance National
Human Rights Institution (GANHRI) in Geneva.
He said the commission suffered “reputational damage” after the 2006 coup, and that it took the commission 15 years to get back a grading in 2021 from GANHRI.
“An A-accreditation means you’re fully human rights principle-compliant, B means you’re almost there, and no status means you have a long way to go.
So, between 2003 and 2007, we had A-an status, top of the tree, basically,” said Mr Sharma.
“After the December 2006 coup, GANHRI came up with a proposal that we were no longer human rights-compliant because we were actually not enforcing the human rights principles we wanted to.
“For some reason, our then commission decided to withdraw its A-status.”
Mr Sharma said after the withdrawal, GANHRI denied the withdrawal and suspended the commission.
“So, we lost A-status. We didn’t even get B, we had no status.
