The following summary of the report prepared by Amnesty International is released courtesy of the University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin. For the full report, please go to Paradise Lost.

"There is no Constitution, the entire judiciary was sacked, the Fiji Human Rights Commission has been and continues to be a strong supporter of Bainimarama. The military government has passed a decree which gives them blanket amnesty to do what they want do to ‘enforce martial law’. There is nothing to stop the soldiers from harming or killing us if we try to protest, march or speak out." - Prominent Fijian Human Rights Defender, 16 April 20091

This report illustrates Amnesty International’s concerns about widespread human rights violations which followed then President Ratu Josefa Iloilo’s abrogation of the Fiji Constitution on 10 April 2009. These include violations of the rights to freedom of assembly, opinion, expression and movement, the right to a fair trial, and freedom from arbitrary detention.

Amnesty International was present in Fiji during the abrogation of the Constitution and its aftermath and managed to conduct extensive consultations and interviews with activists and stakeholders about the human rights situation there. During the mission, Amnesty International obtained first hand information about ongoing human rights violations and the Fijian people’s prevailing fears about the impunity with which the authorities violate human rights there.

These violations have been facilitated, among other things, by the unilateral and unconstitutional removal by the President of legal safeguards against human rights violations, including human rights provisions in the Constitution; provisions on the independence of the judiciary and of legal professionals in general; and the granting of wholesale impunity to officials who violate human rights when implementing Presidential decrees.

In this report, Amnesty International calls on the government of Fiji to put an immediate halt to all human rights violations by members of the security forces and government officials, including the arbitrary arrests; intimidation and threats; and assaults and detention of journalists, government critics and others. The Fijian government should also immediately repeal the Public Emergency Regulations (PER) in force since 10 April 2009, whose broad and sweeping provisions have enabled officials to violate key human rights with impunity. Finally, the government must ensure that all serious violations of human rights are subject to prompt, independent, effective and impartial investigations and that suspected perpetrators, including those suspected of ordering these acts, regardless of rank, are brought to justice in proceedings which meet international standards of fairness without recourse to the death penalty.

On 9 April 2009, Fiji’s Court of Appeal ruled that the government of Frank Bainimarama, Army Commander appointed in the wake of the 2006 coup, was unconstitutional. Bainimarama had led the coup on 5 December 2006, following a protracted public stand-off between the Qarase led multi party government and the Republic of Fiji Military Forces (RFMF). Before the coup Bainimarama had accused then Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase’s government of corruption and of institutionalising racism.

In response, President Ratu Josefa Iloilo announced in a nationally televised speech at 11am on 10 April 2009 that he was taking over executive authority of the government and abrogating the 1997 constitution. He also announced that he was revoking all judicial appointments, effectively sacking all members of the judiciary. Furthermore, he stated that a new government was to be sworn in which would work towards holding democratic elections in 2014.

After his 10 April announcement, the President immediately issued public emergency regulations effective for the next 30 days. He stated that he had the backing of Fiji’s security forces and had directed Prime Minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama to take all reasonable steps to ensure that peace and order be maintained:

"...following consultations with the Commander of the Republic of Fiji Military Force, I have decided that we must once and for all and in a decisive manner, map out a smooth path to holding parliamentary elections based on the electoral reforms and other reforms as set out under the Charter. To facilitate the holding of true democratic and parliamentary elections I hereby abrogate the 1997 Constitution. With this abrogation I appoint myself as the Head of State of Fiji under a new legal order. To effect the abrogation I decree the following:

• Abrogation of the 1997 Constitution
• Appointment of the Head of State
• Continuation of Existing Laws; and
• Revocation of Appointment of All Judicial Officers

I shall be making further decrees in the days to come."2

Since the December 2006 coup d’etat and the appointment of a military-controlled government, with Bainimarama as both commander of the army and prime minister, the military had been encroaching on Fiji’s political and administrative system, including on the independence of judges and lawyers. In the process, they violated a wide array of human rights. (see Appendices 1 and 2). With the April 2009 abrogation of the constitution and the declaration of emergency, Commodore Frank Bainimarama and the military council consolidated their virtually absolute power in Fiji. Parliament had previously effectively been abolished with the deposing of the Qarase government in December 2006.

The Fiji Constitutional Amendment Act 1997 Revocation Decree3, promulgated on 10 April 2009 states that the president is now empowered to make laws which will be observed and enforced:

"In exercise of the powers vested in me as President and Commander in Chief of the Republic of the Fiji Military Forces, I also hereby decree that all Decrees promulgated under my hand and seal shall be regarded as law and shall be observed and enforced."4

President Iloilo appointed himself as the president of the country under section 2 of the Executive Authority of Fiji Decree 2009.5Section 56prevents any court action that questions the validity of this decree or any other decree that the President promulgates.

As outlined in section 4 of the Executive Authority of Fiji Decree, the president granted himself absolute power from the date of the abrogation to the time when a new constitution is promulgated:

"Until such time as a Parliament is elected in accordance with a Constitution yet to be adopted, the President of the Republic of the Fiji Islands shall have the following powers:

(a) to appoint a Prime Minister by Decree;

(b) to appoint other Ministers on the advice of the Prime Minister;

(c) to make laws for the peace, order and good government of Fiji by Decree acting in accordance with the advice of the Prime Minister and Cabinet;

(d) to exercise the executive authority of Fiji which is hereby vested in the President."7

After the abrogation of the constitution, the security forces acted swiftly, stepping up their presence in and around government offices and other strategic locations. There was a prevailing sense of panic amongst those in public service, especially the senior officials. Those whom Amnesty International spoke with from the 10 - 13 April feared for the worse as they began comprehend what the abrogation of the constitution would mean in reality.

A planned protest on 14 April in Suva, the capital, by the Fiji Law Society resulted in approximately 10 lawyers turning up at the government buildings where the courts are located. The police had secured the area and did not allow any lawyer to enter the buildings, including lawyers in the Legal Aid Commission who had their offices within the cordoned off area. A senior official of the Legal Aid Commission whom Amnesty International spoke to was visibly distressed and stated that he could not believe that they were being locked out of their own offices. Two prosecutors were in tears as they described the intimidation they and their colleagues experienced at the hands of the authorities as they were locked out of their offices.

The Public Emergency Regulations (PER)8as decreed by President Iloilo, included provisions on severe censorship of all Fiji media. Police arrested several journalists, politicians and activists for breaching the PER during the first few weeks that emergency regulations were in place. The abrogation of the constitution, the promulgation of the PER, the dismissal of the judiciary, subsequent political arrests and intimidation of activists have led to a climate of fear and desperation amongst human rights defenders, lawyers, the NGO community and society as a whole.

After the judiciary was dismissed in April 2009, there was no recourse for people whose rights had been violated. The Fiji Human Rights Commission (FHRC) had come out soon after the President’s action to pronounce that the Fijian Constitution’s Bill of Rights Chapter continued to exist despite the abrogation of the Constitution by the President. The Commission was also muted in its criticism of the abrogation of the constitution, saying that whilst is was unfortunate and disappointing, it (the FHRC) understood the reasons for Ratu Iloilo’s actions.9

In a statement following the abrogation of the Constitution in April, the FHRC stated that:

"While the commission expressed sadness and disappointment at the President’s decision to abrogate the Constitution, Dr Shameem said Ratu Josefa’s hand may have been forced to take such an action.

"The Commission understands that His Excellency felt that the Court of Appeal decision in the Qarase case left him, as Head of State and symbol of the unity of the State, with no option but to abrogate the Constitution," she said.10

The Commission had been supportive of the military takeover in December 2006 and had published a report in January 2007 providing justification of the military putsch. 11 In its report The Assumption of Executive Authority on December 5th 2006 by Commodore J.V. Bainimarama, Commander of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces: Legal, Constitutional and Human Rights Issues, the Commission’s then Director justified the military takeover and accused the deposed government of crimes that were tantamount to ‘crimes against humanity’. Human rights defenders in Fiji have since ridiculed the report and accused the FHRC of being a coup apologist.12Human rights activists whom Amnesty International spoke to in Fiji and abroad had said that the ‘bizarre actions’ of the Commission in supporting the military coup d’etat had adversely affected the public’s perception of its credibility, independence and impartiality.13

On 20 May 2009, President Iloilo promulgated a decree which preventedthe Fiji Human Rights Commission from receiving complaints against, investigating, questioning or challenging the legality or validity of any Decrees made by the President.14 Human rights activists in Fiji and overseas heavily criticised this move.15Prominent Fiji human rights activist Shamima Ali characterized the action as farcical stating that the action was:

"... [a] mockery of a national institution on human rights, because the issue that’s contained in there are in total contradiction to each other. On one hand, it cannot investigate human rights abuses and the abrogation of the constitution, and on the other hand three commissioners promote human rights in the country. It really doesn’t make sense."16