The Fiji CEDAW NGO Coalition welcomes the adoption of the
Concluding Observations on Fiji’s sixth periodic report to
the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against
Women (CEDAW), following the Pacific Technical Cooperation
session held from 7–11 April 2025 in Suva at the
Committee’s ninety-first session.
The Coalition
highlights the significance of this milestone — this is
the first time the CEDAW Committee has convened in the
Pacific. The Pacific Technical Cooperation Week demonstrated
genuine efforts by the Committee to work alongside diverse
stakeholders in a spirit of partnership and dialogue. For
Fiji and the wider Pacific, this unique regional review
process offered an unprecedented opportunity to bring
women’s lived realities directly into global human rights
mechanisms.
This year also marks 30 years since Fiji
signed CEDAW in 1995. Three decades on, while some gains
have been made, the Concluding Observations make clear that
women and girls in Fiji continue to face systemic barriers,
weak implementation of commitments, and deeply entrenched
patriarchal attitudes.
“The review underscores the
urgency of action,” said the Fiji CEDAW NGO Coalition.
“Thirty years after signing CEDAW, Fiji must move beyond
rhetoric and take bold, concrete steps to ensure women’s
equality in law, policy, and practice.”
The CEDAW
Committee’s recommendations to Fiji are wide-ranging and
urgent. They include:
• Violence Against Women and
Girls (VAWG): Strengthening the National Action Plan to
Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls (2023–2028), with
strong accountability for perpetrators of offline and online
GBV, and ensuring survivors have access to comprehensive
support services.
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• Access to Justice: Addressing
financial, linguistic, procedural, and socio-cultural
barriers, particularly for rural and maritime women, through
affordable legal aid, simplified procedures, and expanded
mobile court services.
• Temporary Special Measures
(TSMs): Introducing quotas, scholarships, and timebound
targets to accelerate women’s participation in leadership,
governance, and the economy.
• Legislative Reform:
Closing gaps in anti-discrimination laws to address both
direct and indirect discrimination, including intersecting
forms that affect the most marginalised women.
•
SRHR and Bodily Autonomy: Expanding access to sexual and
reproductive health services, including reviewing
restrictive abortion laws, addressing HIV/AIDS, and ensuring
women’s health rights are prioritised.
• Economic
Equality: Tackling the gender pay gap, workplace
discrimination and harassment, and the disproportionate
burden of unpaid care work that limits women’s
advancement.
The Committee also called for greater
investment in awareness, education, and advocacy to
challenge harmful gender stereotypes and patriarchal norms
that continue to block women’s equal participation in
society.
Equally important, the Committee urged Fiji
to ratify the Optional Protocol to CEDAW, which would
provide a crucial complaints mechanism for women seeking
justice when their rights are violated.
The Coalition
stresses that delaying accession undermines women’s
ability to hold the State accountable and weakens Fiji’s
international commitments.
“The Pacific Technical
Cooperation Week was historic because it brought global
human rights processes closer to Pacific realities,” the
Coalition added. “Now Fiji must show leadership by
implementing these recommendations in full — because women
and girls cannot wait another 30 years for
equality.”
