The CEO of Fijian Competition and Consumer Commission Joel Abraham says that discriminating somebody on the basis of race, religion or cultural background is a direct violation of a person’s constitutional rights.
Abraham made this comment after Fijivillage asked him about some landlords refusing to rent out their property based on the interested tenant’s race, religion or cultural background.
Abraham says it is not just about breaching the law and constitutional rights but it is downright inhumane.
He says people can lodge complaints with them if they have faced such issues.
The Director of Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Commission, Ashwin Raj says preclusion of someone from enjoying the right to housing on the grounds of their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, disability amongst other prohibited grounds of discrimination under Section 26 of the Constitution must be brought to the attention of the Human Rights and Anti‑Discrimination Commission.
Raj says racism, bigotry and other forms of prejudice not only exists in political spaces but the insidiousness of racism and bigotry and other forms of prejudice also occurs in these other spaces such as housing and is rarely talked about.
He says we need to unite and fight against negative stereotyping and profiling.
Raj says this is why Fiji has one of the strongest provisions on prohibited grounds of discrimination in its Constitution.
