Controversy over US human rights criticism
Updated
The United States State Department has strongly criticised Fiji in its latest annual assessment of human rights. The rebuke follows US Secretary of Stated Condoleezza Rice this week awarding the executive director of Fiji Womens Rights Movement, Virisila Buadromo, with an International Women of Courage Award. But Washington's disapproval of Fiji's interim government's record on human rights has been rejected out of hand by the head of the country's Human Rights Commission.
Presenter: Bruce Hill
Speakers: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; Chair of the Fiji Womens Rights Movement, Gina Houng-Lee, Chair of Fiji's Human Rights Commission, Shaista Shameem; US Ambassador to Fiji, Larry Dinger
HILL: Virisila Buadromo won the award in recognition for showing exceptional courage and leadership in advocating women's rights and advancement in Fiji, and was later saluted at a White House ceremony hosted by President George Bush. She was one of eight women who received the accolade from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
CONDOLEEZZA: From Somalia and Fiji to Iraq and Afghanistan, from Pakistan and Paraguay to Kosovo, and the Palestinian territories, these women of courage are transforming their societies from the bottom up, and in doing so they are inspiring us all.
HILL: The chair of the Fiji Women's Rights Movement Gina Houng-Lee welcomed the news.
HOUNG-LEE: Overall I think we're sort of in a way, honoured that Virisila as a human rights defender has been given this award of courage in calling for the return to democracy, upholding the rule of law and in trying to sort of highlight the plight of Fiji in relation to the position of the interim regime.
HILL: But the chair of Fiji's Human Rights Commission, Shaista Shameem, says awards to activists and reports on other countries human rights have little credibility coming from the United States.
SHAMEEM: You know it's one of those things where you can't really talk about human rights in relation to the United States of America because everyone knows what's going on in Iraq, it's been going on for quite some time, the gross human rights violations being carried out by the United States government either through their own armed forces or the mercenaries that it employs over there. The United States is one of the few western countries in the world that still has capital punishment, so the United States is really not in any position to talk about human rights violations in any other country in the world as long as it just refuses or fails to clean up its own territory in its own backyard. I don't even need to mention Guantanamo Bay; I think everyone's very aware of what's going on there. There's enough films and accounts of what actually happens, the horrors, we call it the house of horrors. So why would anybody take the United States human rights on top of that state department report seriously?
HILL: Gina Houng-Lee admits they have mixed feelings about receiving an award from the US government, but overall they welcome any spotlighting of the situation in Fiji.
HOUNG-LEE: Well of course this comes with mixed reaction but I think that we have of course there is that the position of the US administration. However we have taken it for the recognition of human rights defenders here domestically and in the region. But I guess it's highlighting the particular vulnerability of women's human rights defenders. I think that also at this time in Fiji that the attacks on human rights defenders and any organisation that is speaking out against the interim regime has come under kind of quite personal victimisation, and it's a worrying trend.
HILL: The US ambassador in Suva, Larry Dinger says the goal of the State Department's human rights reports are to encourage governments to improve, not just to criticise. He also rejects the claim from the Fiji Human Rights Commission chair Shaista Shameem that the US is in no position to offer advice to other countries.
DINGER: Every country has its flaws, the United States certainly does. We're not infallible, but I think the key thing is that we're accountable. And our system encourages criticism from others, if Shaista Shameem wants to criticise the US she's welcome to do so, and she can source lots of US critics in doing so. That's one of our strengths. We take on criticism of others, we attempt to improve our performance thereby and similarly we hope that other countries will improve their performance through the kind of criticism that comes in the human rights reports.
