FIJI HUMAN RIGHTS & ANTI-DISCRIMINATION COMMISSION ANNUAL REPORT 2018 38 the purposes of ensuring the safety or protection of a person or otherwise permitted or required by a court of law or under any other written law. Furthermore section 29 (3) (a) and (b) provides for fines and imprisonment term in the event of a contravention of provisions under 29(1) and (2). This is a significant provision which protects those that are registered and their families against persons who may use the information in the registry to injure, harass, or commit a criminal act or discriminate unreasonably (denial of housing, education and other necessary benefits or services) against any person included in the registry and may therefore be subject to criminal prosecution or civil liability or both. The information disclosed must be limited to what is necessary to promote public safety. Furthermore, law enforcement agencies (Police Force, Corrections, Immigration particularly in relation to corresponding offenders and differing interpretations about what constitutes sexual offense under different jurisdictions, and other relevant ministries such as Education) assigned to manage the Sex Offenders Registry must undergo compulsory human rights and ethics training to enhance their understanding of the human rights implications of the Bill including public awareness. offence be registered as sex offenders, the Committee must consider whether the mandatory registration of young sex offenders fails to give proper consideration to the best interests of children. Careful consideration must be given to the adverse impact of registration on the psychosocial development of the child, ability to enjoy the right to education, gains employment and the ability to enjoy private and family life. • the law should generally distinguish between adults and children Right to correction or deletion of false misleading information • the law ought to make allowance for an individual approach to child offenders • the child or her representatives must be afforded an appropriate and adequate opportunity to be heard at every stage of the justice process Section 30 of the Bill is consistent with section 25(2) of the Fijian Constitution. Section 30(1) of the Bill provides that sex offenders have the right to be provided with all the information that is held in the register in relation to the sex offender. Section 30(2) provides that a sex offender can make a written request to the Commissioner to amend information held in the register that is incorrect. Section 30(3) requires that the Commissioner must take reasonable steps to notify the sex offender whether the Commissioner will comply with the request to amend the information and section 30(4) provides that if the Commissioner denies the request to amend the information, then the details of the request and the denial of the request is recorded in the register. This particular provision can be further strengthened by affording the registered offender the right to know why his or her request to have information amended has been denied. Best Interests of children While the Bill requires that children who are 12 years of age and above who have been convicted of a sexual The Constitutional Court in South Africa in the case of J v National Director of Public Prosecutions and Another (CCT 114/13) [2014] ruled that a law requiring courts to make an order to include the particulars of a sexual offence on a National Register for Sex Offenders is unconstitutional when that offender is a child. The Constitutional Court held that the starting point for all matters concerning the child, the child best interests are paramount. In ruling that being on the register after having served their sentence would result in the sanctioning of exclusion in areas formative to their dignity, the Constitutional Court considered three principles when approaching issues involving the best interests of a child offender: Furthermore, the Committee may also consider the recommendations made by the Human Rights Watch in the context of the United States that a panel of qualified experts must determine whether a child poses a high risk of sexual re-offense and that public safety cannot be adequately protected through any means other than the child being subject to registration. Right of appeal against lifelong registration The Bill must establish mechanisms by which offenders, whose convictions have been overturned, set aside or vitiated by a court of law be removed from the registry rather than being “labeled for life” by being kept in the register indefinitely. In the US, the length of the time a sex offender will remain on the registry is dependent on the classification of the sex offender. A panel of expert or a court of law, however, should determine whether an individual is a “sexually