The NGO Coalition on Human Rights (NGOCHR) is concerned at the current processes and outcomes unfolding under Fiji’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
They note that the TRC Act frames all parties as “survivors,” including those who carried out human rights abuses.
NGO Coalition on Human Rights Chair, Shamima Ali says this approach collapses the distinction between victims who suffered egregious harm and perpetrators who orchestrated or executed violent acts, including intimidation, assault, torture, and even rape.
Ali says while restorative justice is important, equating perpetrators with victims erases historical truth, dilutes responsibility, and denies victims the recognition and justice that they rightfully deserve.
She says the recent TRC hearing featuring Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka further highlighted the weaknesses of the current process.
The Chair says the process focusing on healing, reinforces concerns that the TRC hearings risk becoming symbolic exercises designed to “tick the box,” rather than authentic mechanisms for truth and justice.
She says constitutional immunities continue to shield those responsible for coup-related abuses as a result, even if individuals confess to rape, torture, assault, or violent intimidation during coup periods, they face no threat of prosecution.
Ali says this structure leaves survivors without real justice and leaves perpetrators untouched, where perpetrators still walk free, and some still hold high office.
She says for victims, many of whom were women, young people, and rural community members subjected to rape, assault, humiliation, and forced detentions this ongoing impunity is retraumatising and signals that the state does not recognise the severity of their suffering.
The NGOCHR is calling on the State to utilise existing criminal justice avenues to investigate and prosecute serious crimes committed during the coups.
They say these crimes must not be shielded behind the TRC process or constitutional immunities. Fiji’s obligations under international human rights law require genuine accountability.
The NGOCHR is calling for urgent actions to amend or repeal legal provisions that protect coup perpetrators through blanket immunity.
They say the TRC, in its current form, risks becoming a mechanism for political convenience rather than national healing.
The NGOCHR says a true path toward reconciliation should not just be ceremonial but instead must be paved in truth, accountability, and justice.
