Chapter 1: The State. The first chapter of the 1997 Constitution of Fiji is titled The State. It is divided into five sections, which summarize briefly how the nation of Fiji sees itself.
Section 1 states that "The Republic of the Fiji Islands is a sovereign, democratic state." This underscoring of Fiji's commitment to democracy comes against the backdrop of political instability that has sometimes plagued Fiji, resulting in two coups d'état prior to the adoption of the constitution, and a third and fourth since.
Sections 2 and 3 deal with the place of the Constitution. The Constitution is declared to be "the supreme law of the State," and laws inconsistent with it are prohibited. In interpreting the Constitution, individual clauses are to be interpreted in the context of the Constitution as a whole, as well as the context in which the constitution was drafted. Any interpretation is required to consider any developments that may have taken place, subsequent to the adoption of the Constitution, in the understanding and promotion of particular human rights.
Section 4 establishes three official languages: English, Fijian, and Hindustani. This was a new development; previously, only English had enjoyed official status. Elevating Fijian and Hindustani (an umbrella term used to cover both Hindi and Urdu) to the status of official language served two purposes: it was aimed at assuaging the fears of indigenous Fijians, alarmed by the many political concessions made to Indo-Fijians (also known as Fiji Indians, or, especially in Fiji itself, as just Indians) elsewhere in this Constitution, and was also intended as a message to Indo-Fijians that they were being recognized as equal partners in the nation.
English is declared to be the language of the Constitution; translations in Fijian and Hindustani have been made, but in the case of any perceived discrepancy among the versions in the three languages, the English version prevails.
Every person (whether a Fiji citizen or not) is granted the right to communicate with any organ of government, at both the national and local level, in any of the three official languages, "either directly or through a competent interpreter."
Section 5 codifies the relationship between religion and the Fijian State. It declares that "Although religion and the State are separate, the people of the Fiji Islands acknowledge that worship and reverence of God are the source of good government and leadership."
This statement is a compromise. Fiji has a strong fundamentalist Christian lobby which campaigned for the Constitution to establish Christianity as the official religion of the State (and continued to agitate for a constitutional amendment to that effect). This was completely unacceptable to many Indo-Fijians, only six percent of whom were Christians. The debate had racial and political overtones; with some exceptions, many of those campaigning to enshrine Christianity in the Constitution were identified with movements advocating ethnic Fijian political supremacy. Most mainstream parties on both sides of the ethnic divide, however, agreed that a constitutional clause calling for "worship and reverence of God" was broad enough to encompass interpretations acceptable to Hindus and Moslems, as well as Christians.
Modern Standard Hindi, commonly referred to as Hindi, is the standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in Devanagari script. It is the official language of India alongside English and the lingua franca of North India. Hindi is considered a Sanskritised register of the Hindustani language, which itself is based primarily on the Khariboli dialect of Delhi and neighbouring areas. It is an official language in nine states and three union territories and an additional official language in three other states. Hindi is also one of the 22 scheduled languages of the Republic of India.
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, often simply referred to as the Charter in Canada, is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada, forming the first part of the Constitution Act, 1982. The Charter guarantees certain political rights to Canadian citizens and civil rights of everyone in Canada from the policies and actions of all governments in Canada. It is designed to unify Canadians around a set of principles that embody those rights. The Charter was proclaimed in force by Queen Elizabeth II of Canada on April 17, 1982, as part of the Constitution Act, 1982.
The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular state and to disestablishment, the changing of an existing, formal relationship between the church and the state. The concept originated among early Baptists in America. In 1644, Roger Williams, a puritan minister and founder of the state of Rhode Island and The First Baptist Church in America, was the first public official to call for "a wall or hedge of separation" between "the wilderness of the world" and "the garden of the church." Although the concept is older, the exact phrase "separation of church and state" is derived from "wall of separation between Church & State," a term coined by Thomas Jefferson in his 1802 letter to members of the Danbury Baptist association in the state of Connecticut. The concept was promoted by Enlightenment philosophers such as John Locke.
A state religion is a religion or creed officially endorsed by a sovereign state. A state with an official religion, while not a secular state, is not necessarily a theocracy. State religions are official or government-sanctioned establishments of a religion, but the state does not need to be under the control of the clergy, nor is the state-sanctioned religion necessarily under the control of the state.
Bihari languages are a group of the Indo-Aryan languages. The Bihari languages are mainly spoken in the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal, and also in Nepal. The most widely spoken languages of the Bihari group are Bhojpuri, Magahi and Maithili.
The 1997 Constitution of Fiji begins with a Preamble, which sets out the historical, cultural, and political reasons for the drafting of the 1997 Constitution.
Chapter 2: Compact. The second chapter of the 1997 Constitution of Fiji contains Sections 6 and 7 of the Constitution. They summarize, in "compact" form, the intent and purpose of the Constitution, as well as the goals that it seeks to accomplish. It establishes the principles on which the Fiji government are to be based, and according to which the Constitution is to be interpreted.
Chapter 4: Bill of Rights.Chapter 4 of the 1997 Constitution of Fiji is titled Bill of Rights. It is one of the longest chapters of the Constitution, comprising a total of twenty-three sections.
Chapter 6: The Parliament.Chapter 6 of the Fiji Constitution is titled The Parliament. The five Parts, further subdivided into forty sections making up this chapter, set out the composition, functions, and powers of Fiji's bicameral legislature.
"Separation of church and state" is a metaphor paraphrased from Thomas Jefferson and used by others in discussions regarding the Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution which reads: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."
Fijians are a nation and ethnic group native to Fiji, who speak Fijian and English and share a common history and culture.
The preamble to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is the introductory sentence to the Constitution of Canada's Charter of Rights and Constitution Act, 1982. In full, it reads, "Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law".
American civil religion is a sociological theory that a nonsectarian religious faith exists within the United States with sacred symbols drawn from national history. Scholars have portrayed it as a common set of values that foster social and cultural integration. The ritualistic elements of ceremonial deism found in American ceremonies and presidential invocations of God can be seen as expressions of the American civil religion.
Religiously, Fiji is a mixed society, with Christianity and Hinduism being the main faiths.
Islam is the state religion of Malaysia, as per Article 3 of the Constitution. Meanwhile, other religions can be practised by non-Malay citizens of the country. In addition, per Article 160, one must be Muslim to be considered Malay. As of the 2020 Population and Housing Census, 63.5 percent of the population practices Islam; 18.7 percent Buddhism; 9.1 percent Christianity; 6.1 percent Hinduism; and 2.7 percent other religion or gave no information. The remainder is accounted for by other faiths, including Animism, Folk religion, Sikhism, Baháʼí Faith and other belief systems. The states of Sarawak and Penang and the federal territory of Kuala Lumpur have non-Muslim majorities. Numbers of self-described atheists in Malaysia are few as renouncing Islam is prohibited for Muslims in Malaysia. As such, the actual number of atheists or converts in the country is hard to ascertain out of fear from being ostracised or prosecution. The state has come under criticism from human rights organisations for the government's discrimination against atheists, with some cabinet members saying that "the freedom of religion is not the freedom from religion".
Antidisestablishmentarianism is a position that advocates that a state church should continue to receive government patronage, rather than be disestablished.
Indo-Fijians, also known as Indian Fijians, are Fijian citizens of South Asian descent, and include people who trace their ancestry to various regions of the Indian subcontinent. Although Indo-Fijians constituted a majority of Fiji's population from 1956 through the late 1980s, discrimination and the resulting brain drain resulted in them numbering 313,798 (37.6%) out of a total of 827,900 people living in Fiji as of 2007.
A national god or tribal god is a guardian deity whose special concern is supposed to be the safety and well-being of an 'ethnic group' (nation). This is contrasted with other guardian figures such as family gods responsible for the well-being of individual clans or professions, or personal gods who are responsible for the well-being of individuals.
A Christian state is a country that recognizes a form of Christianity as its official religion and often has a state church, which is a Christian denomination that supports the government and is supported by the government.
The status of religious freedom in Oceania varies from country to country. States can differ based on whether or not they guarantee equal treatment under law for followers of different religions, whether they establish a state religion, the extent to which religious organizations operating within the country are policed, and the extent to which religious law is used as a basis for the country's legal code.