UN members should press Fiji’s military government during a review of its human rights record to end arbitrary arrests, ill-treatment in detention, and interference with judicial independence, and to ensure a swift return to democratic rule.

Australia has a good track record of principled diplomacy and implementing targeted sanctions against abusive military governments in Burma and Fiji. Yet it's relatively easy for Australia to speak out about countries where it has few economic interests. It takes more courage and principle to turn up the heat on countries where it has significant economic and strategic interests.

The Commonwealth has developed a 21st-century role – as a haven for serial human rights abusers.

Fiji remains a military dictatorship that denies its citizens the right to take part in self-government through free and fair elections, as well as the freedoms of speech, press, assembly, and religion. Since the December 5, 2006 coup d’état, the military and police have arbitrarily arrested and detained human rights defenders, journalists and others perceived as critical of the administration.

Fiji’s interim government continues to commit human rights abuses two-and-a-half years after a military coup. Human Rights Watch urged leaders attending the Pacific Islands Forum to agree to push Fiji’s interim government to cease these abuses immediately, when the region’s leaders meet on August 5 and 6 in Cairns, Australia.

We write to urge you and other leaders attending the 40th Leaders' Meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in Cairns from August 5 to 6, 2009, to address the ongoing human rights violations in Fiji.

Fiji's interim government should immediately reinstate the Constitution, restore judges unlawfully removed from office, and withdraw government censors from newsrooms.

Human Rights Watch sent a letter to President Ratu Josefa Iloilo regarding human rights in Fiji.