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Human Rights Education in the Pacific (Working Paper) [1999] JSPL 11; (1999) 3 Journal of South Pacific Law

Working Paper 1 of Volume 3 1999

HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION IN THE PACIFIC

A Paper Prepared for the
UNESCO ASIA/PACIFIC MEETING ON HUMAN RIGHTS
EDUCATION, INDIA

Prepared by C. Wickliffe
MC Fellow in Human Rights Education
Institute of Justice and Applied Legal Studies
University of the South Pacific
Suva

 
I. Introduction

As we reflect on the human rights education needs of our region I am reminded that most people of the Pacific, who live in a region that comprises one third of the globe, generally do not have access to the international human rights system. This is because few fully independent countries in the Pacific have acceded/ratified the six major international human rights instruments.

The major human rights treaties are:1

• the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) 1966;
  
• the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) 1966;
  
• the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) 1966;
  
• the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) 1979;
  
• the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) 1984;
  
• the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) 1989.
  

Of the 14 independent countries in the Pacific, only two have ratified the ICCPR and only three have ratified the ICESCR that. The ICCPR and the ICESR, combined with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, make up the International Bill of Rights. The protections offered by these important instruments are generally available only in independent countries, in territories still under colonial rule, or in countries who have chosen a self-governing relationship with their former trustee/colonial power namely:

• Tokelau through New Zealand (Aotearoa);2
  
• New Caledonia (Kanaki), French Polynesia (Te Ao Maohi) and Wallis and Futuna through the Republic of France;3
  
• Guam, Hawaii, Northern Marianas and American Samoa through the United States of America;4
  
• Pitcairn Islands through the United Kingdom;
  
• Easter Island (Rapanui) through Chile;5
  
• Solomon Islands;6
  

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