COMPLAINTS and reports by persons with disabilities to the UN Human Rights are not yet in effect in Fiji.
UN Human Rights officer Satya Jennings told this to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence yesterday.
Ms Jennings was replying to a question by the chairman of the committee Netani Rika, if there have been any complaints or reports received from persons with disabilities to the human rights.
She was making a submission to the committee on whether Fiji should ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
“It has not been in effect in Fiji. The protocol has only been signed by Fiji but has yet to be verified,” Ms Jennings said.
“This mechanism is not yet in place,” she said.
Ms Jennings said there had been some quite prominent cases for example in Australia where the committee considered that a human rights violation with persons with disabilities did take place because they had limited access to courts.
“This has been examined by the committee and a violation has been found; the State needs to provide compensation or remedy for the persons affected. But normally there is a criteria that domestic remedies need to be exhausted before going to the international level.”
She said Fiji would need to ratify the optional protocol before this applied in Fiji.
Fiji signed the CRPD on August 2, 2010 and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on June 2, 2010.
