1:09 PM |
PIF: NZ aid cuts sends "wrong message" about Pacific human rights – Amnesty International
Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Josephine Latu, in Port Vila, Vanuatu.
Human rights group Amnesty International has criticized New Zealand's new aid policy, saying that recent cuts to Pacific funds are sending the wrong message to the world.
"Amnesty International is concerned that aid for human rights projects has been pulled without much rationale," said Deputy Director for their NZ office Rebecca Emery.
"When New Zealand speaks at international forums about Fiji – they talk about human rights violations… I think it's unbelievable."
The Pacific Islands Forum meeting is underway in Port Vila, Vanuatu, where the local women's centre is one of the groups directly affected by the new aid restraints. In June, despite a glowing review in February that all projects were on target, the centre was told that NZ support would be halted indefinitely, two years short of a funding commitment made in 2007.
An official letter advised them that rather than a performance issue, it due to a "change of policy".
"If I knew [the program] earlier I would have been holding a placard up at the forum," said the agency's head coordinator, Merilyn Tahi.
"They didn't give us a warning. They just told us they were ending funding."
This was despite a previous agreement to harmonize funding with AusAID until 2012.
Tahi's staff must now look for new ways to keep their counseling centre on the northern island of Santo open. Out of the agency's three local offices, it has been fully funded by NZ Aid since 1995, budgeting about NZD150,000 each year to provide counseling to survivors of domestic and sexual violence.
"Vanuatu has been nominated again this year as the happiest country in the world. But beneath that we are running rampant in domestic violence. For once I couldn't support that statement [about Vanuatu]," said Tahi.
She added that 60 to 70 percent of local women go through domestic violence sometime in their lives and 60 percent of local prison inmates are sexual offenders. However, many local women do not come forward about abuse due to family and community pressures.
Amnesty International's Pacific researcher Apolosi Bose said that gender violence is not usually a priority issue in such top level forums, although there was "lots of lip service".
"We feel Pacific leaders have let the women and children down," he said at a press conference today.
"What is a shame is that New Zealand has a really done a lot in the Pacific in human rights awareness… [Now] we're taking so many steps back. It gives the excuse to other governments to say if [New Zealand's] doing it, why can't we? It sends the wrong message.
"We need to have a balance – you can't concentrate on trade agreements and forget about access to sanitation and water that people see everyday."
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said that although he did not have the details, aid projects were usually taken on a "case by case basis".
"New Zealand has always taken the issue human rights seriously… It's not a matter of us taking preference on economic development over human rights issues, but on the basis of the merits of each of the projects," he told media.
Improved aid coordination and progress on the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) are both key topics at this week's leaders' meeting. The forum runs from August 3 to 6 and gathers the region's top leaders to discuss issues affecting the Pacific. It will be held again next year in New Zealand.
While the New Zealand Government is reducing aid to the Pacific, it announced Thursday that it would increase support for Pacific education.
In a statement John Key said: "New Zealand is developing a new scholarship scheme which will focus on increasing study opportunities for Pacific people, raising student performance, and developing leadership skills.
"This will boost our education investment to $15 million per year. I believe this is a key building block for the future success of the region," John Key said.
Josephine Latu is reporting for Pacific Scoop at the 2010 Pacific Islands Forum in Port Vila, Vanuatu.
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