Reply: Mr Deewan Chand’s letter

Ashwin Raj, Fiji Human Rights and Anti Discrimination Commission direcor

Dear Mr Chand,

I acknowledge the concerns that you have raised in your letter to the Fiji Sun published on June 16, 2020. I share your concerns about the abject and precarious position of older persons.

It is unfortunate however, that instead of engaging in an ethic of constructive engagement and writing off the efforts of the Human Rights and Anti Discrimination Commission in a single metonymic strike, you could have at the very least asked the Commission what it is doing to protect the rights of older persons.

The Commission is intervening in all matters that has been brought to its attention by older persons and we have, pursuant to the powers conferred to the Commission under the Fijian Constitution, sought to afford remedy in a number of cases that amount to an interdiction of the rights of older persons and the Complaints Division of the Commission would gladly enlighten you on the kinds of human rights violations complaints the Commisison has received and addressed in relation to older persons.

We travel throughout the country to reach out to older persons, intervene in situations of violence and abuse, place them in safe homes and make every effort to afford them subsistence rights.

The statement that we issue to mark the World Elder Abuse Awareness Day is not a performative exercise. It is the culmination of work year in and year out of societal neglect and abuse.

Although the Commission’s efforts in raising awareness through the mainstream media in World Elder Abuse Day has been met with derision by you, I respectfully request you to enter the protocols of the Commission and raise concerns including that in relation to FNPF (which I notice was edited out in the published piece) as you have done so in this letter.

One of the ladies who appears on the awareness poster with a staff of the Commisison is over a 100 years old.

She came to the Commission to raise her concerns and seek the Commission’s intervention in the restitution of her rights.

It inspired me to see that she recognises the importance of institutionally validated agency and in engaging institutions to create structural change.

It is only by working together can we address these structures of inequality and indignity. Otherwise, we are both guilty of grandstanding.