Fiji Centers

Known Centers based in Fiji

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Fiji Centers The Pacific Concerns Resource Centre (PCRC) Pacific Regional Rights Resource Team (RRRT)

 

 

The Pacific Concerns Resource Centre (PCRC)

 

Year Established:1980

 

Short Historical Background

 

The Pacific Concerns Resource Centre Inc. (PCRC) was first established in Hawai'i in 1980. From 1986 it was based in Auckland before moving to Suva in 1993.

 

PCRC serves as the secretariat for the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific (NFIP) Movement. Based in Suva, Fiji Islands, with over a hundred affiliated non-governmental and community organizations from around the Pacific.

 

The NFIP Movement was set up in 1975 in opposition to continued nuclear tests in French Polynesia. Since then, NFIP Movement has met in conference every three years, bringing together representatives from around the region: indigenous peoples' organizations; church, trade union and peace activists; environmentalists; and movements for sovereignty and self-determination.

 

The main objective of the NFIP Conferences is to serve as the premier forum for discussion amongst members concerning the struggle for self-determination, human rights, justice, peace and liberation, and to formulate policies and action programs for the NFIP Movement and PCRC.

 

In 1999, PCRC gained General Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council - the only non-governmental organization in the Pacific to hold this status.

 

Objectives

 

PCRC aims to coordinate, articulate and disseminate information about the concerns and struggles of peoples of the Pacific in their desire to exist free from exploitation, from the threat of environmental degradation and from both foreign and internal forms of subjugation.

 

Programs

 

PCRC collects and disseminates information, advocates and lobbies, promotes discussion and understanding and mobilizes resources within and outside the region on five campaign areas: demilitarization, decolonization, environment, human rights and good governance and sustainable human development.

 

It has programs on the following issues:

a. Human rights and good governance

• Good governance
• Indigenous rights
• Refugees.

 

b. Demilitarization

• Internal militarization in the Pacific
• Foreign military forces
• Johnston Atoll chemical agents disposal system (jacads)
• Missile defence and Kwajalein atoll
• The Rarotonga Treaty for a South Pacific nuclear free zone
•  Nuclear test victims

 

c. Decolonization

• West Papua, Te ao Maohi/French Polynesia, Kanaky/New Caledonia, Tokelau,

 

d. Sustainable Human Development

• World Trade Organisation
• ACP-EU Cotonou Agreement
• Pacific regional Trade Agreements

 

 

Activities

 

Library - PCRC maintains a library collection of books, periodicals, reports and pamphlets collected by the NFIP Movement since 1975. The library has a strong Pacific emphasis, with specialist collections covering PCRC's five main campaign areas: decolonization, demilitarization, environment, sustainable human development, and human rights and good governance. There are also substantial reference and periodical sections.

 

There is a continuous effort to preserve news clippings, articles, graphics and audiovisual materials, as well as maintain the library's collection of journals published by organizations throughout the region. Research and summarizing reports, conference and briefing papers are also regularly updated and maintained.

 

Networking and Partnership with other Civil Society Organizations - PCRC is the regional focal point for the Pacific Regional Non-Governmental Organisations (PRNGO) a collective of eleven Pacific-focused and regional civil society organizations predominantly based in Fiji that collectively lobby the Pacific Forum countries on agreed issues and concerns. Among the key issues collectively worked on by the platform are the Review of the Pacific Islands Forum, 9th European Development Fund, Pacific Plan, trade negotiations, the appointment of Non-State Actors' Liaison Officer at the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat and the Policy on Accreditation and Engagement of Regional Non-State Actors in Forum Processes (approved by Forum governments in February 2007).

 

PCRC is also a member of Fiji's NGO Coalition on Human Rights.

 

 

Publications

• Pacific News Bulletin
• Report of the Inaugural Pacifc Consultation on the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, March 15-17 2004, Nadave, Suva
• 2004 Pacific Civil Society Forum Meeting, Apia, Samoa
• No Te Parau Tai, No Te Parau Mau, No Te Tiamaraa
• For justice, truth and independence
• Kirisimasi - Fijian troops at Britain's Christmas Island nuclear tests
• The French nuclear tests in Polynesia: Demanding the truth and proposals for the future
• After Moruroa - France in the South Pacific
• Moruroa and Us - Polynesians' experiences during thirty years of nuclear testing in the French Pacific
• The 3rd NGO Parallel Forum - Rarotonga, Cook Islands
• Independence and Sovereignty for Te Ao Maohi (French Polynesia)
• Report of the inaugural Indigenous Peoples of the Pacific Workshop on the United Nations Draft Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples
• Indigenous Peoples' Knowledge and Intellectual Property Rights Consultation
• Never Again?
• Freedom 2000
• Collision Course at Kwajalein - Marshall Islanders in the shadow of the Bomb
• Nuclear Free & Independent Pacific Conference 1983

 

Address

 

Pacific Concerns Resource Centre, Inc.

83 Amy Street, Toorak,Private Mail Bag

Suva, Fiji

ph (679) 304-649

fax (679) 304-755

e-mail: pcrc[a]is-com.fj

www.pcrc.org.fj

 

 

 

 

Pacific Regional Rights Resource Team (RRRT)

 

Year Established:1995

 

Short Historical Background

 

Initially established as a legal literacy project with a focus on women and children, RRRT has expanded over the years to provide training,technical support, policy and advocacy advice in human rights to promote social justice and good governance throughout the Pacific region.

 

Based in Suva, Fiji, RRRT is managed by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC).

 

It assists partner organizations, both State and non-State, with capacity building for human rights. It works at the macro-level with policy makers, parliamentarians, judges and magistrates; at the meso level with institutions like the police, social welfare and teachers; and at the micro community level with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and communities themselves.

 

Objectives

 

RRRT aims

1. To strengthen the capacity of policy makers to adopt and apply human rights principles and good governance practices;
2. To strengthen the capacity of implementation-level agencies to develop, promote and apply human rights principles and good governance practices;
3. To strengthen the capacity of civil society and marginalized groups to advocate, assert, monitor and defend human rights and good governance - with special focus on the poor, women and children;
4.  To strengthen the capacity of RRRT to enhance its delivery of innovative and cutting edge human rights support and services to its partners in promoting good governance.

 

 

Programs

 

Training & Advocacy

 

RRRT designs and delivers comprehensive, sustained, quality training programs tailor-made for all levels of government and civil society, from Members of Parliament to rural community-based advocates, from social workers to judges.

 

The training uses inclusive and interactive training approach. RRRT runs training workshops for Community Paralegals, the judiciary, lawyers, medical practitioners, teachers and police on human rights and gender equality issues, community-based women and men on their legal rights, government departments and personnel on human rights issues and the Convention On The Elimination Of All Forms Of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Over the past seven (delete) years, RRRT has trained close to three hundred Pacific Island law graduates undertaking the University of the South Pacific's Professional Diploma in Legal Practice on human rights and family law and a regionwide network of over three hundred community-based advocates through its Community Paralegal Training program.

 

With the rights-based approach to development as the framework, a key objective training is to clearly demonstrate the linkages between democracy, good governance and human rights and their impact on development and the alleviation of poverty.

 

RRRT also conducts regional workshops for human rights and women's advocates in partnership with other regional or international organizations on such issues as gender and economic literacy, the right to land and adequate housing, feminism and legal theory.

 

The Community Paralegal Training (CPT) program is the main component of RRRT's micro-level activities. The objective of the CPT program, introduced in 1997, is to extend outreach, create a pool of human rights advocates and build organizational capacity to support RRRT-backed Legal Rights Training Officers (LRTOs) that are employed in partner organizations. Although originally designed as a legal literacy program, the training now emphasizes human rights education, awareness and advocacy - which also includes legal literacy knowledge. The human rights training targeted at community leaders, activists and government officers consists of an intensive six-week course spanning over a period of approximately eighteen months.

 

Technical Support & Policy Advice

 

RRRT provides professional and technical support to government and civil society organizations throughout the Pacific. Upon request, RRRT provides assistance to government in the development of legislation and policy and reporting their international human rights obligations to treaty bodies and the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council’s mandatory Universal Periodic Review process. It also provides assistance to civil society organizations in human rights advocacy, legislative lobbying and mobilization strategies.

 

Activities

 

RRRT undertakes activities such as the following:

• Developing model legislation to combat discrimination against persons living with HIV/AIDS
• Developing appropriate legislation for the protection and promotion of civil society organizations and assistance to civil society in advocating for the establishment of human rights machinery in each Pacific Island country
• Producing human rights publications and advocacy materials tailored specifically for the Pacific, including a human rights training manual, booklet on the right to adequate housing and an annual Pacific Digest on human rights case law
• Assisting partners with research, social impact assessments and monitoring and evaluation exercises.

 

 

Publications

 

• Pacific Human Rights Law Digest Volume 1 (2005)
• The Big Seven: Human Rights Conventions & Judicial Declarations (2005)
•  Telling Pacific Human Rights Stories to the World: A road map for reporting before the UN Human Rights Council’s UniversalPeriodic Review process (2010)
• Changing Laws: A Legislative Lobbying Toolkit (2010)
• Challenging Stigma & Discrimination: HIV & Human Rights (2008)
• Ko e hâ ‘a e CEDAW?, Tonga Catholic Women’s League & Pacific Regional Rights Resource Team (2005)
• CEDAW Roadmap: Reporting before the Committee (2003)
• All about CEDAW in 10 Questions and Answers: A Basic Information Guide to CEDAW (2001)
• Law for Pacific Women: a Legal Rights Handbook, P. Imrana Jalal, Fiji Women’s Rights Movement FWRM (1998)
• Right Hia - RRRT’s e-newsletter

 

 

Address

 

Pacific Regional Rights Resource Team (RRRT)

2nd Floor, Pacific House

Butt Street, Suva, Fiji

ph (679) 330 5582

fax (679) 330 6582

e-mail: registry[a]rrrt.org.fj  

www.rrrt.org

 

Mailing address:

Private Mail Bag

Suva, Fiji