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Commodore Bainimarama was asked to speak at the ITU conference even as he was left off the invite list for the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Perth, Australia, this week because of his illegal take on power and his poor human rights record.



“The invitation to the Commodore brings shame on the ITU by giving a public and global platform which he is now using to legitimate his regime,” said UNI Global Union General Secretary Philip Jennings in a letter to ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré.



The ITU is the United Nations agency for information and communications technologies.



“[Bainimarama is] a leader who has no democratic mandate but took power by force,” Jennings said. “Fiji is a country which is acting in fundamental breach of the UN’s Human Rights policy and in contradiction to the ILO Core Labour Standards.”



UNI ICTS Global Union is the global union for Information, Communication, Technology and Services (ICTS) which represents over 3 million workers around the world. Jennings said UNI should address the meeting to explain the issues in the telecommunications industry in Fiji to offer an insight into the real story of what is happening there.



The International Trade Union Confederation has reported the Fijian regime’s actions to limit the rights of independent and democratic trade unions, including severe limits to union recognition and collective bargaining, the right to strike, and access to dispute resolution; assault, harassment and intimidation of trade union leaders and their families; curtailing trade union and civil rights of freedom of expression, access to media and the freedom of assembly; as well as government attacks on trade union rights by executive decree.



Jennings also offered to hold an emergency meeting with the ITU Secretary-General as soon as possible to discuss the matter further.



Click on "Related Files" to read the full letter.