The Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre (FWCC) and Fiji Women’s Rights Movement (FWRM) have called for a complete repeal of the name change policy.
Enacted in 2021, following amendments to the Interpretation Act 1967 and Electoral (Registration of Voters) Act 2012, – the policy which required married women to change their birth certificate names to their married name to be able to vote was met with backlash.
Yesterday marked the first day of public submissions to hear the views of citizens on the policy review, which was approved by Cabinet earlier this year.
In delivering a joint submission from the country’s biggest women’s organisations, FWRM executive director Nalini Singh outlined three main reasons why they wanted the policy gone.
First, the new laws placed significant burdens on married women, second, they threatened married women’s legal and political rights, and third, the new laws served no legitimate purpose.
“In Fiji, a large proportion of women of all ethnicities in Fiji have adopted their husband’s surnames as their family name upon marriage, while it is not customary for men to adopt their wives’ names as a family name,” Ms Singh said.
“The husband’s surname becomes the ‘family name’, which married women share with their children. At the same time, many married women also value the original natal family names given them by their parents, as part of their cultural and social identity, and familial heritage.
“Married women, when adopting their family names, did not renounce their original birth names, which for each of them remains an important part of their identity, as this was allowed by law.
“Each wishes to be able to retain their original name on their birth certificate as a record and expression of their identity as members of their natal family, while also using an adopted family name for their own family unit and descendants.”
In addition, Ms Singh said it was the responsibility and duty of the Fiji Government, under the Constitution, to advance human rights and equality between men and women.
“Women and in particular, married women, have historically been discriminated against directly and indirectly in the enjoyment of their legal and human rights.
“The new laws prevent a very large disproportionate number of married women from exercising their legal and voting rights at all unless they take steps that are costly in terms of time and money, which men generally do not have to take in order to exercise their rights.
“For all the reasons outlined above, we strongly recommend that the new laws be repealed as the State has provided no justification that the new laws were necessary, reasonable or proportionate, nor did it provide justification on the impact that it had on married women.”
The consultations will be held in Labasa today.
Public submissions for the review will close on May 4.
