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Press Release - October 16, 2001
AIDS Workshop
The Fiji Human Rights Commission was recently invited to attend the 6th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific, held at the Melbourne Convention Center.
The Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions facilitated this Workshop and the member Institutions held their own separate meeting and consultation apart from the main plenary sessions organized by ICAAP (the International Congress on Aids in Asia and The Pacific).
Its Senior Legal Officer, Usaia Ratuvili, represented the Commission and he was invited to make a presentation to the APF Forum on how the Fiji Commission is addressing the issue of HIV/AIDS and human rights in the Fijian context. The Commission's presentation was well received and there have been firm commitments of assistance both in expertise and also in training and work placement attachments from the other forum members.
The members of the APF forum came up with several concrete Statements as a result of the Workshop, the main being the determination to continue regional co-operation in formulation of policy, exchange of information and experiences, sharing of expertise where possible and the use of the Forum Secretariat as a database in which to pool all information and resources from each member country. Forum members also agreed to be the catalyst and facilitators for HIV/AIDS awareness and other related projects in their home countries, in close co-operation and collaboration with their NGOs.
The Forum meeting then submitted these resolutions to Plenary to be included as part of ICAAP's final resolutions to be tabled in the final report of this sixth meeting of ICAAP. The Fiji Human Rights Commission has really benefited from this meeting and will work towards implementing the very practical resolutions reached at the Melbourne meeting.