Rights of

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Rights of the child

From: The Fiji Times

I quote from the Education Gazette, 1995 (page 21): “In June 1993, the Fiji government ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Subsequently, Government estab lished the Children’s Coordinating Committee (the CCC) in 1993 to look into ways in which Fiji could incorporate pro visions of the Convention into our laws

and practices.”

A delegation was to have gone to Geneva in February 1996 to present Fiji’s report to an International Conference on the Rights of the Child.

Hopefully, the delegation has diligent ly included in its report that a man (who initially pleaded guilty to the charge but later changed his plea) can rape an eight

year-old girl plucked from her sleeping

bed in the middle of the night, and be tried for indecent assault (facing a maximum sentence of five years in jail). Maybe the child has changed her statement. Why would she? What does an eight-year-old know about penetration or sex or rape any

way?

It will, no doubt, take several years for her to understand why she was assaulted, and she may never recover from the trau

matic experience.

The rapist, if convicted, faces a few years in jail.

While there he can join a union demanding his rights as a prisoner, with the Attorney-General and Commissioner of Police negotiating on behalf of the Government.

The subscription, of course, is paid by the taxpayers, including the victims.

What has happened to the rights of the child (if there were any)?

Ravin Pillay

Nadi, Fiji