State of the World's Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2013 - Fiji

Fiji has experienced a long history of tumultuous politics, most recently marked by the 2006 coup which led Frank Bainimarama to seize power as military ruler. The key issue at stake in the coup was the underlying tension concerning the rights of the Indo-Fijian minority against the indigenous majority. Since 2006, Fiji has maintained tense diplomatic relations with neighbouring countries, and at one point had severed diplomatic relations with numerous states in the region.

The year 2012, however, indicated a possible change in political approach. Bainimarama announced the lifting of martial law and the government initiated consultations on a new Constitution. Following the public commitment to call elections by 2014, countries of the region, including Australia and New Zealand, agreed to restore full diplomatic ties with Fiji.

Initially, there appeared to be a genuine process of consultation on a new Fijian Constitution. Internationally renowned constitutional experts were invited to participate in a newly established Constitutional Commission, which was charged with producing a draft Constitution and paving the way for a return to democracy with free elections in 2014. The Commission proclaimed that its guiding principle was to steer Fiji away from the race-based politics of the previous Constitution, which favoured indigenous Fijians over the Indian minority. It was also based on democratic participation, with reportedly more than 7,000 submissions received.

The Commission's draft Constitution was submitted to Bainimarama in December 2012. However after it was presented, police were ordered to seize copies and burnt the printer's proofs. In the first days of the new year, Bainimarama, together with Fiji's President Nailatikau, pronounced that the regime had serious concerns with the draft produced by the Commission and claimed it entrenched ethnic divisions within the country.

The government released a new draft in March 2013 and invited public consultations, but the process was much shorter and less transparent than the original process. The new draft Constitution says nothing about protections for indigenous peoples' land rights, or mechanisms for resolving disputes between land owners and tenants. It also completely scraps the Great Council of Chiefs, the body of indigenous Fijian chiefs, which has left many indigenous Fijians feeling that they are being excluded from decision-making.

The rejection of the Constitutional Commission's draft and the lack of transparency surrounding the redrafting process will bring into question whether promised elections in 2014 will in fact be free and fair, and will be able to resolve the simmering ethnic tensions in the country.