ATTORNEY-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says we need to move forward from events of the past.

While speaking to legal practitioners at the 18th Attorney-General’s Conference in Sigatoka yesterday, Mr Sayed-Khaiyum raised the issue of torture highlighted in the Amnesty International report Beating Justice: How Fiji’s Security Forces Get Away With Torture.

“Of course there have been a lot of publicity,” he said.

“If you’re reading The Fiji Times, you would think that everybody is tortured every day. On a daily basis,” he said.

“We have of course a report by Amnesty International which we had responded to that was very flawed,” he said.

“That report related to past events.

“We are not saying that it did not happen.

“We are saying that we need to move forward.”

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said Fiji ratified the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment this year.

“We recently had a workshop on that organised by various offices under the United Nations.”

He said the Government had been working to improve the rights of accused persons with the assistance of the British Government and the European Union.

“This pertains to the rights of the accused and we’re working with the British Police Force and Fiji Police Force on the rights of the accused and other procedures pertaining to when a person gets arrested and when they are detained and how we deal with that.”

The issue of accused persons’ rights will be discussed at the conference at the InterContinental Fiji Golf Resort & Spa.

Speakers on the issue include Chief Justice Anthony Gates, deputy commissioner of police Isikeli Ligairi, Association for the Prevention of Torture’s Rebecca Minty, Geneva Bar Association member Sylvain Savolainen and European Union head of delegation to the Pacific Andrew Jacobs.