The Republic of Fiji Military Forces says the August 2025 Supreme Court ruling created the first genuine legal opportunity since 2013 to reform the Constitution, but warned that Fiji cannot achieve lasting national healing while constitutional immunity provisions remain untouched.
In its submission to the Constitution Review Commission, Commander Major General Ro Jone Kalouniwai said the ruling created a legal pathway for constitutional reform but did not resolve the deeper moral and accountability issues facing the nation.
“Our argument is that the August 2025 Supreme Court ruling was a historic disruption that made constitutional change legally possible for the first time since 2013, but it is not by itself a cure for the nation’s wounds.”
He said while the ruling opened the door to rewriting the country’s constitutional framework, it left the immunity provisions protecting past actions intact.
“The ruling opened the legal pathway to rewrite the rules for the future, while leaving the protected walls of the past—the immunity provisions—intact.”
Kalouniwai argued that constitutional reform would remain incomplete unless Fiji also confronted unresolved issues of accountability.
“A nation cannot achieve true stability if it prepares to repair its rules while remaining legally forbidden from addressing the difficult injuries caused by decades of silence.”
The RFMF said the country must use the lower constitutional amendment threshold established by the Supreme Court to enact reforms that were previously unattainable.
It also called for closing what it described as the nation’s “moral gap”, arguing that legal reform is meaningless if those protected by the existing constitutional framework remain beyond accountability.
“A legal pathway to change is meaningless if those shielded by the whole system remain insulated from accountability.”
Major General Kalouniwai said Fiji must move beyond a narrow legal approach and focus instead on what is morally necessary for national reconciliation.
“We must move the national conversation beyond what is legally permitted to what is morally required for genuine healing.”
Among the military’s recommendations are using the 2025 Supreme Court ruling to specifically review constitutional immunity clauses, creating mechanisms that promote transparency rather than silence, and undertaking what it described as a national moral audit of Fiji’s institutions.
“Treat the 2025 opinion as authority to conduct a systemic review of the nation’s institutions, so that future law is built on truth rather than technicality alone.”
