FIJI: MPS TO VOTE ON REMOVAL OF DEATH PENALTY FROM THE MILITARY ACT

the Fijian Parliament approved a motion introduced by Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum in order to expedite the process of a bill amending the Republic of Fiji Military Forces Act (Cap 81) with a view to remove the death penalty provision.
The one-page amendment that seeks to remove the capital punishment and align the Act with all laws of the country will be debated and voted on in the Fijian Parliament in two days' time. The 2013 Constitution provides that every person has the right to life.
Sayed-Khaiyum said the decision to introduce the bill was in line with an undertaking the Government gave the United Nations Human Rights Council during its human rights review in November 2014. “We gave an undertaking that we will remove any reference to the death penalty. That can be replaced by life sentence,” he said. Fijian Opposition National Federation Parliament member Tupou Draunidalo suggested that a decision on amending the Act is not rushed saying that keeping such “harsh things intact doubles as a deterrent to future coups.”