UN Experts to Analyse Impact of Constitutional Amendments on Human Rights in Samoa

The United Nations Resident Coordinator based in Samoa, Ms. Simona Marinescu.

By Lagi Keresoma

APIA, SAMOA – 24 FEBRUARY 2021: The impact of the three laws passed by parliament in December 2020 on human rights in Samoa will be discussed in a United Nations roundtable meeting set for next month.

This was confirmed by the Apia based UN Resident Coordinator for Samoa, Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau, Ms. Simona Marinescu.

“We would like to provide our own analysis in our report based on our consultations so there is a roundtable being organised in March,” she told Talamua.

The controversial legislations are the Judicature Law, the Lands and Titles Law and the Constitutional Amendment that had been rejected by the Samoa Law Society and the Judiciary as well as various international organisations who fear a threat to human rights and the rule of law.

Simona Marinescu said her office has looked into the new developments on human rights in quite large debates on the package of 3 legislations recently passed in Parliament.

The United Nations will send a high level technical team for the roundtable.

“We will have experts in Constitutional Law and Customary Law reviewing together with us the 3 laws and it will be attended locally and internationally by some of UN experts from the High Commission Office on Human Rights,”said Simona Marinescu.

“We will invite well known experts to help us provide a solid analysis on how those laws impact the exercise of human rights in Samoa and if there are any impacts that we need to be concerned about,” she said.

The UN is currently working on three streams of Human Rights reports such as:

• the National Human Rights Report on Samoa due on the 9 August 2021;
• the UN Human Rights report due on the 25 March 2021;
• and the Shadow report prepared by the stakeholders, the civil societies, the Human Rights Initiative in Samoa and any other stakeholders willing to put forward a report.

The key players in the UN consultation included the Government, civil societies, key institutions in the Government, the private sector and the Samoa Congress of Workers.

“We continue to ensure our report is accurate, well documented as it is important for the review that will take place in November 2021,” she said.

The report looks at the progress a country has made on the recommendations made by the Human Rights Council (HRC) in 2016.

There were 121 recommendations and Samoa supported 91 of those recommendations.

Simona Mariunescu said every country has a human rights review every five years and Samoa is having her third review in November 2021 that would be undertaken by the Human Rights Council.