Strengthening regional arrangements for the protection and promotion of human rights in the Pacific

Abstract

States as duty bearers have an obligation under international law to protect and promote human rights. All Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Member States embed these obligations within various normative and institutional frameworks. These regulatory systems are designed to enhance the protection of human rights. However, there are significant protection gaps at the national or State level and at the (Pacific) regional level. This dissertation responds to the question of how Pacific States can address these human rights protection gaps and strengthen State obligations to protect and promote human rights. Using a qualitative study, this research adopts a Pacific talanoa method of sharing information and ideas on issues and in this context, human rights in the Pacific. The dissertation examines the conceptualisation of human rights at the national and regional level and the role of Pacific States in safeguarding human rights. I found that while human rights understanding is evolving in the Pacific and is widely accepted across the region, human rights tensions remain. The challenges and tensions are in its enforcement and conceptualisation.

To address these tensions, my dissertation argues that institutionalising human rights will significantly contribute to its understanding and practical implementation. The thesis advances scholarly understanding of the roles of both national and regional human rights institutions in addressing protection gaps by (1) conceptualising human rights in a local and regional context, (2) vernacularising human rights, and (3) supporting the implementation of human rights commitment and obligations. I demonstrate this by drawing on two case studies showing how Fiji and Samoa's national human rights institutions (NHRI) are advancing human rights protection and understanding in their nations. Samoa's NHRI annual human rights reports (the first and only such mechanism in the Pacific) serve as a monitoring mechanism for the State in gauging its human rights obligations on various thematic issues and implementation. This unique form of monitoring and accountability by the NHRI enhances the credibility of promoting human rights understanding in the community, especially in linking the important cultural concept of fa'aSamoa to human rights. Moreover, the thesis finds that Fiji's NHRI amicus curae role significantly contributes to creating accountability of the State's legal obligation to protect human rights by enforcing the obligations in Fiji's normative legal instruments and those derived under human rights treaties. Furthermore, both Samoa and Fiji NHRI advance human rights education, awareness, and build human rights capacity through training across all levels of society.

The dissertation also examines human rights protection at the regional level. It argues that significant human rights protection gaps exist because of the lack of institutional mechanisms. Using a comparative lens by drawing from the human rights' architectural experiences of the African, inter-American and European regions, the thesis argues for the establishment of a Pacific human rights architecture to address the region's protection gaps, especially in the context of climate change. This dissertation builds on the initial work on the conceptualisation of a (Pacific) regional human rights mechanism by the Law Associations for Asia and the Pacific (LAWASIA) in 1985. However, the dissertation makes an original contribution on how human rights institutions, both at the national and regional level, can contribute to vernacularising human rights by synergising human rights principles with Pacific values. The dissertation argues for the establishment of human rights institutions at the national and regional level to address the human rights protection gaps in the Pacific. Show more