From Radio New Zealand International:A daylight hour protest fast involving about 800 women in Tonga is continuing.
Tongan Women’s National Congress members have been fasting for about three weeks between six am and six pm to protest against what they describe as poor governance of the prime minister, Feleti Sevele, and to call for his and his deputy’s resignation or removal.
However, the Congress head, Mele Amanaki, says she has ended her hunger strike and is now also fasting only during daylight hours.
“I believe it’s the Lord speaking to me telling me to eat. So I broke the fast on Monday evening at 6 o’clock after 21 days, but I still continue fasting daily from six o’clock in the morning to six o’clock in the afternoon.”
Mele Amanaki says they won’t give up until they reach their goal.
From Radio Australia:A Tongan women's rights activist says she is prepared to continue a fast until the country's prime minister and deputy prime minister step down. Mele Amanaki, who heads the Tongan Women's National Congress, has been fasting for two weeks to protest what she says is injustice carried out by the government of prime minister Dr Fred Sevele. These include the 2006 riot which destroyed much of the capital, Nukualofa, the Princess Ashika ferry disaster and the refusal of the government to ratify a United Nations convention which prohibits discrimination against women.
From Bruce Hill @ Radio Australia:Tonga's parliament has decided not to ratify an international convention outlawing discrimination against women. It voted 18 to 1 with 4 abstentions to not ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, or CEDAW. The Tongan prime minister's office says he Legislative Assembly believed that to ratify CEDAW would cut across the cultural and social heritage that makes up the Tongan way of life, which is not based on individual rights and freedoms, but on the individual's relationship with the extended family and the wider community.
