The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Justice, Law and Human Rights is currently receiving submissions on the Sex Offenders Registry Bill.

The Committee started their Northern tour with public consultations in Lagalaga and Vunivutu village.

Committee Chair, Alvick Maharaj says the turnout has been overwhelming with more than a 100 Fijians showing up at the Vunivutu Village hall to make submissions on the Bill.

Maharaj says generally the sex offender registry bill has been welcomed and seen as a possible deterrence to serious sexual crimes.

However, he says there have been some concerns about the life-time registration of convicted offenders on the registry.

“We did receive some comments with regards to whether it should be or should not be for lifetime or there should be timeframe but then we had very strong support from the ladies actually basically talking about with the mental torture they go through, the stigma that is actually placed on them once the rape takes place so they are actually quite supportive of the name appearing on the register for a lifetime.”

The committee will hear submissions on the bill today in Labasa and will travel to Bulileka and Seaqaqa tomorrow.

On Saturday the committee will be in Taveuni to hear submissions there which will be followed by Bua and Dreketi from Monday onwards.

The Registration of Sex Offenders Bill 2018 seeks to establish the Register of Sex Offenders (‘register’) to help monitor sex offenders in the community and reduce sexual offences.

The Bill requires sex offenders to report relevant personal information about them for inclusion in the register.

Sex offenders are also required to make periodic reports to keep their personal information in the register up-to-date.