Results for Pacific Islands

Ministers and parliamentarians from the Commonwealth, including Tonga, spoke at a panel on Migration in the Commonwealth: International Movement and Human Rights Challenges and Opportunities, at the United Nations General Assembly on 18 September in New York.

Some 22.5% of Tonga’s population - or over 23,200 people live below the national poverty line, according to the Asian Development Bank's latest statistics released yesterday. The high cost of living as well as lack of access to basic infrastructure, services and utilities and the lack of employment or opportunities to generate income make it difficult for people to meet their basic needs.

A contribution of more than USD$30m from the USA government to its “friends in the Pacific” was announced by US President Obama at the East-West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii on Thursday, 1 September.

The Prime Minister of the Cook Islands, Hon. Henry Puna is the new Chancellor of the University of the South Pacific (USP) and was officially installed at a graduation ceremony on 26 August in Fiji.

The singers of the University of the South Pacific’s (USP) Pasifika Voices have been recorded for the soundtrack of the much anticipated Hollywood Disney Animation 'Moana', to be released in November this year.

A petition by civil societies from around the Pacific was sent to Pacific Trade Ministers today, 24 August, two days ahead of their Christchurch meeting, calling for them to not reach any conclusion on the PACER-Plus talks, until all texts have been released and there has been a fully funded independent and comprehensive impact assessment.

Five Tongan workers including a father and son have been killed in a horrific car crash near Tauranga in New Zealand last night. New Zealand Police said that at about 8:10pm on August 2 a northbound vehicle pulled out of a side road onto State Highway 2 near Katikai and was struck by a southbound logging truck and trailer. The victims have been named as Halani Fine, Koli Vaipulu, Sitiveni Vaipulu, Sione Teulaka, and Samuela Taukatelata.

The Pacific is highly vulnerable to human trafficking, especially where developing countries have poor social and economic systems, high rates of poverty, under-resourced judiciary and government agencies, and inadequate laws, said Patricia Kailola at the 2016 Pacific Update Conference at the University of the South Pacific in Laucala yesterday.

Thirty-five royal Tongan marines are currently in participating in the world's largest international maritime warfare exercise, Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC 2016), in Hawaii. On their first day of training last Thursday June 30, the Tongan marines conducted Urban operations with Australian, New Zealand and U.S troops at Kaneohe Bay in Hawaii.