A strong statement has been made today by Bernadette Rounds on behalf of the women who have challenged the Electoral Registration of Voters Amendment Act.
While speaking during the consultation to review the name change policy, Rounds said they want the law repealed.
She says the policy has tagged women as non-entities as far as this registration is concerned.
Rounds says it is upsetting and disappointing to know that without any proper consultation, without any decent time in parliament to conduct a debate on this policy and for no reason at all, these women’s status was changed by the previous government.
She says all of a sudden there was a huge burden being put on the shoulders of these women and everything changed including their birth certificates and the way they identified themselves.
Rounds says it would have been appropriate if there was a Member of the Parliament to be present at the consultations today to see and hear the grief of the women about this policy.
The 72-year-old says it is also sad to see that these women feel discarded and being left aside because majority of the women in Fiji were not consulted and there were no emotions in this policy.
Rounds shared her experience of how this name change policy affected her on one of her overseas trips where she was told that the name on her passport did not match the name on her birth certificate.
She had to make a hard decision to change her name on her birth certificate.
She adds there is a need to have this policy repealed as soon as possible.
