Women everywhere in the world want equal pay, they want to control and decide what to do with their own bodies and without women in the workplace, everywhere in the world, all our economies do not grow to the extent that they need to grow.

These were the words of the Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation, Mereseini Vuniwaqa at the launch of the Inter -tertiary Law School six weeks Moot Competition at the University of Fiji, Saweni Campus yesterday.

She praised the organisers of the Moot Competition for basing it on gender-based issues.

Participants would include law students from the University of Fiji, University of the South Pacific and the Fiji National University.

“The prospect of professionals in the making, adopting gender equality as part of their learning and professional development speaks volumes about not only the gender agenda, but also the University of Fiji Student Association’s recognition of the need to mainstream it into your practical learning,” she said.

“The spirit of winning this Moot competition that you all must be having today must be the same when you go out and practice law in the gender context in the bigger world because each fight for gender equality will be a fight worth fighting not only for present times but for every generation that will follow,” she said.

University of Fiji School of Law fourth year students Fane Kasa and Isoa Matonitabua presented their opening submissions for the first moot court session.

Ms Kasa said the competitions were normally held at the respective tertiary campuses and it was the first time for her to present her submissions in front of law students from other universities.

“We women have always been treated like we are second best and we are trying to eradicate this violence against women to change the mentality the man is always superior so that is why to think it’s important when this event that we actually tried to do awareness,” she said.

“It was really stressful we had to work through Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with the current resources we had we tried our best to make something for the submission because normally in court this would take seven days, 14 days for us to actually file the application.”

Mr Matonitabua said his submissions were based on the state’s efforts to address the issue.

“The state has been committing itself. In allocation of resources to different ministries in working hand in hand with religious bodies and non-government organization in trying to reduce violence against women,” he said.

The Moot Competition is sponsored by the Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation, the Fiji Women Lawyers Association and the eminent law firms of Munro Leys and Neel Shivam Lawyers.

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