Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about 1,100 nautical miles north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about 110 are permanently inhabited—and more than 500 islets, amounting to a total land area of about 18,300 square kilometres (7,100 sq mi). The most outlying island group is Ono-i-Lau. About 87% of the total population of 924,610 live on the two major islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu. About three-quarters of Fijians live on Viti Levu's coasts, either in the capital city of Suva, or in smaller urban centres such as Nadi or Lautoka. The interior of Viti Levu is sparsely inhabited because of its terrain.
Tuvalu, formerly known as the Ellice Islands, is an island country in the Polynesian subregion of Oceania in the Pacific Ocean, about midway between Hawaii and Australia. It lies east-northeast of the Santa Cruz Islands, northeast of Vanuatu, southeast of Nauru, south of Kiribati, west of Tokelau, northwest of Samoa and Wallis and Futuna, and north of Fiji.
The Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) is an inter-governmental organization that aims to enhance cooperation among countries and territories of Oceania, including formation of a trade bloc and regional peacekeeping operations. It was founded in 1971 as the South Pacific Forum (SPF), and changed its name in 1999 to "Pacific Islands Forum", so as to be more inclusive of the Forum's Oceania-spanning membership of both north and south Pacific island countries, including Australia. It is a United Nations General Assembly observer.
Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria is a Chilean politician who served as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2018 to 2022. She previously served as President of Chile from 2006 to 2010 and from 2014 to 2018 for the Socialist Party of Chile. She is the first woman to hold the Chilean presidency. After leaving the presidency in 2010 and before becoming eligible for re-election, she was appointed as the first executive director of the newly established United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. In December 2013, Bachelet was re-elected with over 62% of the vote, surpassing the 54% she received in 2006. She was the first President of Chile to be re-elected since 1932. Bachelet, a physician who has studied military strategy at the university level, previously served as the Health Minister and Defense Minister under her predecessor, Ricardo Lagos. She is a separated mother of three and identifies as an agnostic. In addition to her native Spanish, she speaks English fluently and has some proficiency in German, French, and Portuguese.
The University of the South Pacific (USP) is a public research university with locations spread throughout a dozen countries in Oceania. Established in 1968, the university is organised as an intergovernmental organisation and is owned by the governments of 12 Pacific island countries: the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
Brij Vilash Lal, OF was an Indo-Fijian historian who wrote about the Pacific region and the Indian indenture system. A harsh critic of the Bainimarama government, which originated in the military coup of 2006 and retained power in the 2014 elections, he lived in exile in Australia.
Roko Tupou Takaiwai Senirewa Draunidalo is a Fijian lawyer and politician. She is a former member of the Parliament of Fiji and from 2018 to 2022 was the president of the HOPE party.
Women in Uruguay are women who were born in, who live in, and are from Uruguay. According to Countries and Their Cultures, there is a "very high proportion" of Uruguayan women participating in the labor force of the South American country. The Uruguayan legislation maintains that the women of Uruguay have equal rights to power, authority, and privileges". In reality, however, women are still not occupying "higher economic, professional, political, social, and religious positions". In relation to the political arena, UN Women reported that a 2012 study made by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) ranked Uruguay as being "103rd out of 189 countries in terms of representation of women in Parliament". Uruguay low ranking is partly due to its low political participation of women: only 16% of members of Parliament are women as of 2014.
Women in Tuvalu continue to maintain a traditional Polynesian culture within a predominantly Christian society. Tuvaluan cultural identity is sustained through an individual's connection to their home island. In the traditional community system in Tuvalu, each family has its own task, or salanga, to perform for the community. The skills of a family are passed on from parents to children. The women of Tuvalu participate in the traditional music of Tuvalu and in the creation of the art of Tuvalu including using cowrie and other shells in traditional handicrafts. There are opportunities of further education and paid employment with non-government organisations (NGOs) and government enterprises, education and health agencies being the primary opportunities for Tuvaluan women.
Roshika Deo is a Fijian feminist and activist who founded the Be The Change Campaign/Movement. The movement advocates for various rights and aims to transform Fiji’s social, political, economic, and cultural landscape.
Dr. Mahendra Reddy is a Fijian politician and former Member of the Parliament of Fiji. He served as the Minister for Agriculture, Waterways and Environment from 2017 to 2022.
The Fiji Women's Rights Movement (FWRM) is a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural organisation based in Suva, Fiji, that works to remove discrimination against women through attitudinal changes and institutional reforms. FWRM believes in the practice and promotion of feminism, democracy, good governance and human rights. FWRM is known for its public opposition to military rule in Fiji since the first coup in 1987, and for its innovative approaches and core programmes related to intergenerational women's leadership in Fiji, particularly young, indigenous and locally-born women.
Salote Vuibureta Radrodro is a Fijian politician and former member of the Parliament of Fiji. She is a member of the Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA). In 2022 she was convicted of corruption and sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment.
The women's liberation movement in Oceania was a feminist movement that started in the late 1960s and continued through the early 1980s. Influenced by the movement which sought to make personal issues political and bring discussion of sexism into the political discourse in the United States and elsewhere, women in Australia and New Zealand began forming WLM groups in 1969 and 1970. Few organisations formed in the Pacific Islands, but both Fiji and Guam had women affiliated with the movement.
Vanessa Griffen is a Fijian academic and writer who campaigns against the use and proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Noelene Nabulivou is a Fijian activist and spokesperson on climate change, sustainable development, and gender equality. She is the co-founder and political advisor for Diverse Voices and Action for Equality (DIVA), an organisation that promotes climate justice, reducing violence against women, human rights, and LGBTQ rights.
Nalini Singh is a human rights activist from Fiji. In 2017 she was appointed director of the Fiji Women's Rights Movement.
Karen So is a Hong Kong rugby union player. She represented Hong Kong at the 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup as they made their first World Cup appearance.
Winnie Siu is a Hong Kong rugby union player. She competed for Hong Kong at the 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup.
Yi-Chun Tricia Lin is a Taiwanese feminist scholar and professor at the Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) in the United States and Director of SCSU's Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program. She was the president of the National Women's Studies Association from 2012 to 2014. She is the co-founder of the North American Asian Feminist (NAAF) Collective Caucus at the National Women's Studies Association Conference. She has received awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Fulbright Program. In addition to being featured in Ms. magazine, Lin's work has also been published in peer-reviewed academic journals such as Frontiers and Journal of Global Indigeneity.
