PINA

Fiji's High Court has struck out the constitutional redress filed by Lautoka lawyer Aman Ravindra Singh on the no jab no job policy. The matter was called in the High Court Thursday, however Singh did not appear on time. Chief Justice Kamal Kumar then struck out the case. A similar application has been filed by the Fijian Teachers Association. Meanwhile, an employment legal...

Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta and Associate Health Minister Aupito Sua William Sio announced today that New Zealand is donating additional Pfizer vaccines to the Pacific and AstraZeneca vaccines to the COVAX Facility, to support equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines. “New Zealand is donating 708,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to the COVAX Facility to support vaccine programmes in...

In a historic event convened by the United Nations today, Prime Minister, Voreqe Bainimarama and Chair of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) delivered a bold statement on the region’s unwavering commitment for global food systems transformation to advance the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and recover better from COVID-19. At the UN Food Summit 2021, UN Secretary-General Antoìnio Guterres collaborated...

Thank you for the opportunity to once again address the Pacific Islands Forum. Your nations are confronting a dual crisis of climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic. Both threaten Pacific lives and livelihoods. If we follow the current path, the consequences of climate disruption for the prosperity, the well-being and the very survival of Pacific communities will be severe. I witnessed the impacts...

By Kemueli Naiqama, former Fiji Bureau of Statistics chief I note that there has been much debate since the release of the 2019-2020 Household Income and Expenditure Survey on the Fiji Bureau of Statistics Website www.statsfiji.gov.fi. The Minister of Economy, Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum made a statement regarding the report on Tuesday evening 14th September 2021. I wish to set the...

Pacific Islands Forum Leaders will meet with the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, in the margins of the 76th Session of the UN General Assembly. The meeting will be held virtually 24 September 2021 and recommences the annual meeting after it was postponed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Usually a face-to-face session, the meeting will give Forum Leaders the...

UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Thursday again urged eight key countries which have not yet signed or ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), to do so without delay. His request came in remarks to the latest conference to promote the treaty’s entry into force, which were delivered by UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Izumi Nakamitsu. The CTBT was adopted in...

The Marshall Islands president has urged world leaders at the United Nations to monitor geopolitical tensions in the Pacific. Addressing the UN General Assembly in New York via a recorded video message, David Kabua, said countries in the region were in the middle of a tug-o-war between 'the world's greatest powers'. “My own Pacific islands region faces a new emerging security...

Fiji has recorded 177 new cases of COVID-19 and four new deaths Thursday, increasing the total number of cases to 50,377 and 581 deaths since the outbreak in April. Permanent secretary for Health, Dr James Fong said there have been 170 new recoveries to report since the last update, which means that there are now 12,979active cases. “There have been 50,377...

Marshall Islands President David Kabua on Wednesday urged the UN to put an end to the “shameful silence” on Taiwan’s exclusion from the UN system. In his 15-minute pre-recorded address to the UN General Assembly in New York City, Kabua said that collective action is needed from all countries, stakeholders and people to ensure a resilient recovery from the COVID-19...