PM Rabuka stops short of backing immunity repeal

Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka has stopped short of backing the Constitution Review Commission’s (CRC) call to remove the immunity clause from the 2013 Constitution.

Mr Rabuka said the Supreme Court had already ruled on the matter and Government must respect that decision.

Speaking to this masthead yesterday after tabling the CRC report in Parliament, Mr Rabuka was asked whether now was the time to end Fiji’s “coup culture” by removing immunity.

“Well, the Supreme Court has ruled on the position of the immunity in the constitution and we’ll have to respect that,” the Prime Minister said.

The Supreme Court’s August 2025 opinion validated the 2013 Constitution but preserved the immunity chapter as “unamendable”, citing stability.

CRC recommendation

The CRC report recommends removing Chapter 10, the immunity clause, which grants “absolute and unconditional immunity” for the 1987 and 2006 coups and carries over immunity from the 1990 and 1997 Constitutions.

The commission put forward three options:

• Repeal Chapter 10 outright;
• Ask the Supreme Court to reconsider its position; or
• If both fail, retain Chapter 10 but require immunity beneficiaries to swear an Oath of Reconciliation and Allegiance renouncing past actions.

Mr Rabuka stressed that the CRC’s recommendation and the actual draft constitution were two different things.

“That’s not the draft, that is the recommendation from the CRC,” he said, adding that a Cabinet sub-committee had spent two weeks reviewing proposed changes before they go to Parliament.

He also confirmed that Government had the numbers for the required two-thirds majority to pass constitutional amendments.

Mr Rabuka has previously said the clause does not protect him, declaring himself “free”.