Jioji Kotobalavu, a former permanent secretary in the civil service and a current lecturer in public law at the University of Fiji, has expressed that any efforts to establish the Fiji Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) should be deferred until the 2013 Constitution is reviewed and amended. He emphasizes the importance of revising the provisions within Chapter 10 concerning ‘State of Immunity.’
Kotobalavu cautions that the existing blanket immunity for public officials, which applies to actions taken from December 2006 until the first session of the Parliament elected under the new Constitution, could significantly hamper the TRC’s ability to function effectively. He argues that this immunity obstructs the TRC’s capacity to adequately address vital human rights violations.
He asserts that without modifications to these immunity provisions, the TRC’s mandate might be in jeopardy. He believes that the current immunity stifles justice and shields those accountable for past human rights abuses, thereby impeding the TRC’s goal of fostering genuine reconciliation. Drawing parallels to South Africa’s successful TRC, which operated without such immunity measures, he highlights that the immunity provisions in Fiji’s Constitution are unjust and deny rightful justice to victims of human rights violations.
Despite receiving strong support for the TRC from notable leaders including Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, Mahendra Chaudhry, and Savenaca Narube, Kotobalavu advocates for a careful and deliberate approach to the implementation of the TRC.
A steering committee is presently conducting public consultations regarding the proposed TRC. It is imperative, according to Kotobalavu, that the TRC’s work only begins once the issues surrounding state immunity in the Constitution have been addressed. He critiques the Constitution’s immunity provisions as fundamentally undermining the TRC’s effectiveness.
He underscores that, unlike South Africa’s approach where the TRC was established to investigate severe human rights violations during apartheid and where no blanket immunity was granted, the current provisions in Fiji are counterproductive to justice and accountability. The review of the 2013 Constitution should involve the removal of these immunity provisions to restore its legitimacy and ensure justice for the victims of gross human rights violations.