A/HRC/31/7
Department of Justice and Border Control is a testament of the current commitment of the
Government to its human rights obligations.
8.
The Government of Nauru has had to grapple with its own set of challenges relating
to the promotion, protection and enjoyment of human rights. Some of those challenges were
not part of the recommendations provided by the Council in the first cycle of reporting, but
it is worth sharing them with this august body.
9.
The Government of Nauru confirmed that, since 5 October 2015, the country’s
Regional Processing Centre, which houses asylum seekers, was officially open 24 hours a
day, seven days a week. This effectively meant that detention had ended and all asylum
seekers were now free to move around the island at their own free will. That measure had
been planned for a while after already implementing a daytime open centre programme, and
had been waiting for confirmation of assistance from Australia in the transition. The new
arrangements were simply an expansion of the existing open centre programme, which had
been in effect for 12 hours per day. It is significant to note that the Government of Australia
would be supporting Nauru with safety, security and law enforcement, including providing
more Australian Federal Police assistance in that regard.
10.
In addition, to facilitate the new arrangements and ensure that asylum seekers were
integrated into the community safely and cohesively, the Government of Nauru had
increased the number of community liaison officers from 135 to 320, including 30 refugees
as settlement officers, to ensure that refugees were assisted in their transition to the
community. The increase in numbers of officers indicated the commitment of the
Government of Nauru to further ensuring that refugees were given the full support to
becoming members of Nauruan community. The inclusion of refugees as officers was taken
to ensure that cultural perspectives were met in ensuring safe transition in the community.
11.
Refugees living in Nauru had complete access to all communications, including
phone, Internet, e-mail and a myriad of social media platforms.
12.
Regarding social media, the head of the delegation stated that certain Internet sites
had been restricted in the second quarter of 2015. These were sites that contained or had
been maliciously used to publish and broadcast explicit, obscene and pornographic material
involving young Nauruan boys and girls. The decision had been made by the Government
in its efforts to protect its citizens and people from the abuse of the Internet that had seen
vulnerable individuals, especially young Nauruan girls, being maliciously targeted,
harassed and even bullied.
13.
It is also part of Government’s efforts to curb the glorification of criminal activities
and offences against Nauruan women and children through the posting of distressing
images and footage of those individuals in compromising and dehumanizing positions. In
addition, the decision had not been made overnight, but over a period of several months of
investigation, consultation and outreach to sites to rectify what was, on their part, neglect of
protection afforded to the Nauruan people, particularly women and children.
14.
Furthermore, sites that were solely set up for the purpose of distributing explicit,
obscene and pornographic contents would be permanently restricted. It had always been a
crime in Nauru to obtain, sell or distribute such content and those closures were in line with
our beliefs and fundamental objective of protecting our people particularly our children.
Other sites, such as Facebook, that had been abused by malicious users, were under
temporary restriction until the necessary protection mechanisms could be put in place to
ensure that Nauruans and members of our community were not left exposed and vulnerable
to the actions of criminals and cyber bullies. The ban was not designed to restrict asylum
seekers in detention from communicating with the outside world, as had been reported
widely.
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