Pohnpei, Jubi – Pacific civil society representatives are encouraged by the optimistic response of the Forum Troika leaders to issues they raised at the Troika breakfast earlier this morning.
Pacific Islands Association of NGOs executive director, Emele Duituturaga said the 2 hour breakfast dialogue allowed time for six of the 16 CSO representatives in the room to highlight key issues of concern to the sector in the region.
“CSO speakers were Rosa Maulolo of Samoa Umbrella of NGOs, Chuuk Youth Council president, Mori Mori, Fiji Association of the Deaf, Michael Bete Din, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in the Pacific disaster law and advocacy programme head, Finau Limuloa and former Samoa rugby rep and Training and Development Coordinator of the Samoa Association of Sports National Olympic Committee, Matthew Vaea, and myself,” Duituturaga said to Jubi on Friday (9/9/2016).
“We spoke on issues identified from the region wide submissions made under the Framework for Pacific Regionalism as well as other key themes that surfaced during our Micronesian CSO Roundtable Forum held in Pohnpei. These included sports and youth unemployment, aging, violence against women and children, teenage pregnancy, fisheries, disability rights, humanitarian coordination and climate change mobility,” she added.
Duituturaga also spoke extensively on the need for Pacific leaders to be courageous in addressing the issue of West Papua.
“Present were the Troika leaders (President of FSM, Samoan Prime Minister and PNG Foreign Affairs Minister), President of the Marshall Islands and the Palau Minister of State who responded after all our presentations. They all took the time to note down our issues and listed actions that they were doing at national level to address these as well as new initiatives at the regional level that they were looking to propose to other leaders at their meeting to respond to our concerns,” she said.
She said these included a Pacific Human Rights Commission proposed by FSM President, Peter Christian as a response to concerns on the human rights abuses in West Papua.
“We were also encouraged by the Samoan Prime Minister’s promise that the next Troika dialogue in Samoa would expand to include all 16 leaders at a lunch with CSO representatives,” Duituturaga said.
An outcomes document from the Micronesian CSO Roundtable Forum held earlier in the week was handed over to Forum Secretariat Secretary General, Dame Meg Taylor on Tuesday.
The roundtable forum was organised by PIANGO and funded by PIFs and the European Union. (*)
