Pacific

Fiji NGO to monitor political parties commitment to women

17:10 pm on 14 February 2014

The Fiji Women's Crisis Centre is to approach all political parties leading up to the planned September elections to ensure they have policies that enhance the rights of women.

The Centre's co-ordinator, Shamima Ali, says they want political aspirants to focus on human rights and issues like women's access to justice and their economic empowerment.

She says the Centre is not aligning itself with any party but will be keeping an eye on the various manifestos to see if they reflect the concerns of women in Fiji.

And Ms Ali says the Centre also wants to help create an enabling environment for women wanting to contest the elections.

"And that is that women need money to campaign, so if there are women candidates one of the things we are looking at is in assisting to raise funds for all women candidates. So that's one area that really needs to be looked after because transportation to campaign and so on is really very difficult. Difficult for people but women particularly given the financial situation of women in this country."

Shamima Ali of the Fiji Women's Crisis Centre