The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense has this week deliberated on the review of two international treaties that encompass human rights.

Committee Chair – Netani Rika says submissions over the last two weeks have come out in support of the ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

The Chief Justice Anthony Gates explained that the courts have already recognized and applied the articles and principals of the two treaties.

“There are alot of rights that will have a financial implication and we do not have oil in Fiji and we have limited budget and we’re going to have too, it’s a very knotty problem for politicians to decide how is the budget to be arranged.”

The Committee Chair Netani Rika says the adoption of these conventions will serve to reinforce Fiji’s constitution.

“It’s very important for us to ratify and not only that, the Bill of Rights is also part of the constitution so it supports these two treaties."

The committee is expected to finalize their recommendations that will be tabled in Parliament on Thursday.