Suva, Fiji (SPC) – Forty-five newly graduated lawyers of The University of the South Pacific (USP), currently enrolled in the six-month Professional Diploma in Legal Practice programme, are reminded of their role this week in contributing to the realisation of human rights in their work during a two-week course on Family Law and Human Rights: Skills and Practice module.
The course is facilitated by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and funded by the Australian Government.
“SPC has been facilitating this two-week module for 14 years now by designing content, delivering training and assessing students twice a year when the Diploma is offered by USP. This is a tremendous investment into the Pacific region and we are proud to be partnering with USP in this course,” said SPC’s Regional Rights Resource Team Deputy Director, Mark Atterton.
The strategy is to introduce lawyers to be aware of human rights, ensuring that basic human rights are considered in their work in the future, whether in government, private practice or civil society organisations,” he added.
The Family Law and Human Rights module includes skills and practice for the application of human rights and family law relevant to the practice of family law in Pacific jurisdictions. The module is based on international best practice standards and principles and on experience from throughout the Pacific.
The newly graduated lawyers attending the course at the USP Statham campus in Suva are from Fiji, Tonga, Tuvalu, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.
Partners who support SPC’s human rights programme in facilitating some key sessions of human rights and family law include private law firms, non-governmental organisations and UN agencies.
SPC has pioneered human rights training in the Pacific region, working to build a culture of human rights and assisting nation states to commit to, and observe, international human rights standards.
