Rights Should Protect Others: Adi Finau
‘You should make sure that your rights don’t disadvantage the person next to you’
Human rights should be in a right context, that it doesn’t affect people around us, says Adi Finau Tabakaucoro. Soqosoqo Vakamarama President Adi Finau made this comment at the Fiji Women’s Forum National Convention at Tanoa International Hotel in Nadi yesterday.
She said that human rights didn’t occur on their own and should be conveyed within a perimeter, either in the family or in the society we live in.
“You should make sure that your rights don’t disadvantage the person next to you,” Adi Finau said. Speaking particularly on the iTaukei context, she said that human rights were attached to its culture, religious beliefs, traditional norms and values. “Human rights should promote integrity, respect for one another and that should never offend anyone.
“It should liberate everyone in our society”.
She said the women’s organisation Soqosoqo Vakamarama was more traditional and conservative. Adi Finau said the Bill of Rights was good for the country because it protected people’s rights and it didn’t discriminate against anyone. The three day forum would also focus on the 2013 constitution and its ramifications.
One of the challenges, Adi Finau said she was facing, was trying to make iTaukei men understand the importance of women’s rights, she said.
“They think we don’t have a problem, that we aren’t discriminated, they don’t understand the angle we are coming from, we are insisting in equality and equity, they think that as long as we have the right to go to school, that’s it,” she said.