High Court hears challenge over repealed law on women's name changes

Although the changes have been made to the Electoral Registration of Voters Amendment Act and the Interpretation Act that required women to change their name on the birth certificate if they wanted to use their married name to vote, the challenge before the court is not moot.

This has been highlighted by Jon Apted, the lawyer of the 7 women who challenged the name change law.

High Court Judge Justice Dane Tuiqereqere is hearing the case filed by the women against the Attorney General, the Supervisor of Elections and the State.

Apted says it is not moot as there is a wider issue where the rights of the women were infringed between the time the amendment was passed and when it was repealed a year and a half ago.

He says the defendants do not concede that it was not constitutional and therefore it is a possibility that they may reintroduce it.

The lawyer says the fact that it has been repealed does not prevent the court from declaring that it was inconsistent with the law.

Apted also says they seek a declaration from the court that the name change laws breached the Bill of Rights under the Constitution.

He says the burden was on the State to justify the limitations on the right and if they must limit it, they must do the bare minimum to require it. Apted says no justification was provided that the previous law had infringed anyone's right to free and fair election as was stated by the former Attorney General in Parliament.

He also says that the birth certificate does not prove eligibility to vote as it shows that a person was born on a particular date in Fiji and it also does not show citizenship.

The 7 women supported by the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement and the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre had filed the constitutional challenge on the grounds of sex, gender and marital status discrimination and also on the basis that it violates the privacy and social and cultural identity of 100,000 Fijian women.

The 7 women are Lavinia Rose Bernadette Rounds Ganilau, Shiromani Priscilla Singh, Adi Davila Toganivalu, Elizabeth Reade Fong, Leba Seni Nabou, Yasmin Nisha Khan and Salote Raikolo Qalo.

The hearing continues.