FIJI: Call for UN to investigate Fiji judiciary renewed
Updated
There's been a call for independent scrutiny of Fiji's judiciary.The Pacific Centre for Public Integrity has renewed its call for a United Nations special rapporteur to be allowed into the country to conduct an investigation. This follows the Pacific Judicial Conference in Tonga, where the region's judges broke with tradition and made a public statement expressing concern about threats to the independence of the judiciary in Fiji.
Presenter: Bruce Hill
Speakers: Angie Heffernan, the Executive Director of the Suva-based Pacific Centre for Public Integrity; Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, Fiji's Justice Minister and atorney-general.
BRUCE HILL: Its highly unusual for judges to make statements on political matters, so when the judges and chief justices from around the pacific came out with a statement supporting those judges in Fiji who were still striving to uphold the rule of law, it got a lot of attention. Angie Heffernan, the Executive Director of the Suva-based PCPI says the fact that the judges made such a statement at all and the Tonga's Chief Justice, Tony Ford, the Chair of the meeting gave an interview to Pacific Beat on the issue shows there is genuine concern around the region about Fiji's justice system.
ANGIE HEFFERNAN: The fact that those regional judges are making those statements is significant and the interim Government cannot ignore the concerns raised by these judges and they have to actually now take action to try and dispel some of those concerns by allowing outside independent investigators to come in particularly from the UN to assess what's going on with the judiciary.
BRUCE HILL: But the President of the Fiji Law Society Asru Ali says he's not aware of any instance where the independence of the judiciary has been compromised.
ANGIE HEFFERNAN: I think … I think the fact that these are judges who have made those statements, who have expressed those concerns, I think they have … well for me it was not privy to what went on. I think they're in a better position to know what's actually going on within the judiciary.
BRUCE HILL: But really Angie how seriously is the situation? I mean there are court cases, people appear before judges, the judicial system seems to be ticking over. I mean is it really as serious as you're making it out to be?
ANGIE HEFFERNAN: Perception sometimes becomes reality. The CJ from Tonga when he was interviewed made a statement to the fact that they've been informed that some judges have come under pressure from the Government. Now those statements and being the type of person he is would make those sorts of statements very likely unless he had some facts to back him up on that one.
BRUCE HILL: He didn't go into any specifics, do you have any specifics?
ANGIE HEFFERNAN: No we can … we are actually reiterating calls already made by others
BRUCE HILL: But the original judge's decision that judicial independence is under threat in Fiji has been rejected by the Government. Justice Minister and Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says the justice system is not under any pressure from the interim Government.
AIYAZ SAYED-KHAIYUM: Absolutely not. I think the way to assess is whether there is any threat to the independence of the judiciary, if there is any interference by the executive with the judiciary. Now generally there are 43 markers whether the actual appointments of judges or magistrates are carried out independently or not, whether the allocation of matters or files have been brought to the registry in the courts allocated on a systematic and a transparent fashion and whether the actual orders that are made by courts are being adhered to by the executive. Now nobody has been able to prove otherwise. I think it seems to be a bit of a fad to say that there is no independence or there's threats to the independence or judiciary in Fiji. I think what people need to do … there seem to be a lot of people who are making these sorts of calls without actually coming to Fiji without talking to the acting chief justice, without seeing how the courts are functioning and they're making all these calls without knowing what the ground realities in Fiji are. As far as the day to day functions of the judiciary is concerned, there is absolutely no interference with that. Courts are functioning as they were. In fact some have claimed the courts are functioning even better than what it was.
BRUCE HILL: And yet having all these very senior judicial figures from around the region coming out and actually making a statement, it's a pretty serious thing when judges are making these sorts of statements.
AIYAZ SAYED-KHAIYUM: Well absolutely. I mean did they … was the acting Chief Justice of Fiji there to present his case? Were … was he there; was he available to question him? Have they given any specifics as to how the independence of the judiciary is being threatened or being compromised? There's absolutely no specific examples.
