The NGO Coalition on Human Rights (NGOCHR) says it is deeply concerned with the current processes and outcomes emerging from Fiji’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), warning that its structure risks denying justice to victims of past abuses.
NGOCHR Chair Shamima Ali said the TRC Act’s framing of all parties as “survivors” — including individuals who carried out human rights violations — undermines the distinction between victims and perpetrators.
“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 said.
“While restorative justice is important, equating perpetrators with victims erases historical truth, dilutes responsibility, and denies victims the recognition and justice they rightfully deserve.”
Ali said the recent hearing involving Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka further highlighted the weaknesses of the TRC’s current format, warning that the focus on healing risked reducing the hearings to symbolic, box-ticking exercises rather than genuine truth-seeking processes.
She noted that 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,” she said.
According to NGOCHR, this dynamic leaves victims without justice while perpetrators remain free — with some even holding senior positions.
“For many victims — 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,” Ali said.
NGOCHR is calling on the State to use existing criminal justice mechanisms to investigate and prosecute serious crimes committed during the coups, insisting such offences should not be sheltered by the TRC process or constitutional immunities.
The group also urged urgent reforms to amend or repeal legal provisions granting blanket immunity to coup perpetrators.
NGOCHR warns that, in its current form, the TRC risks becoming a tool of political convenience rather than genuine national healing.
“A true path toward reconciliation must be paved with truth, accountability, and justice — not ceremony alone,” Ali said.
