From the House by Pesi Fonua

The Tonga government has reneged on its commitment to the United Nations of March 9 that it would ratify the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

The Prime Minister Hon. ‘Akilisi Pohiva told the Tongan Parliament yesterday, 31 August that government would not ratify CEDAW, “that is what I meant when I said that we are stepping back,” he said.

‘Akilisi expressed his concern over how the country has been divided over the issue of CEDAW, and said government is stepping back from CEDAW to diffuse tensions in the community.

He said that the government approach to this contentious issue is to introduce a Bill on Referendums to parliament, to make it possible for Tonga to hold a referendum on CEDAW. “After a referendum, parliament will decide, then it will be presented to His Majesty to make the decision yes or no.”

Ambiguous

The government’s position over the CEDAW convention has been ambiguous. The issue has been raised in parliament a number of times since 2009. The new government, after three months in power, sent the Minister for Internal Affairs, Hon. Fe’ao Vakata to tell a UN Commission on the Status of Women on 9 March 2015 that “the Government of the Kingdom of Tonga, has decided that it is now ready to ratify the CEDAW, although with some reservations.”

During May, when the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister were away overseas three anti-CEDAW petitions were presented to parliament, from Church Leaders, a Catholic Women's Group and from Lapaha and Tatakamotonga, Tongatapu.

On 29 May parliament unanimously passed a Resolution 14-0 in support of the petitions for government not to ratify CEDAW.

After that whatever the government decided to do should be reported back to the House.

Eight petitions were also presented to the King in Council and the response from the Privy Council on 15 June was: “We remit to Our Ministers forthwith to proceed as may be necessary to annul the Kingdom of Tonga’s signature or ratification of the CEDAW Treaty."

However, since May the issue of CEDAW has not been raised in the House until yesterday, with the introduction a petition of another Catholic Women's Group calling on government to proceed and ratify CEDAW. The petition supporting CEDAW was tabled into parliament on 21 May, but it was read in parliament yesterday and they agreed to pass it on to cabinet.