19 Apr 2015 Statement from the 11th WACC Pacific Assembly

The 11th Assembly of the World Association of Christian Communication – Pacific Region convened in Nadi on 16-17th April, 2015 at the conclusion of Young Women’s Media Advocacy Regional Training Institute and the WACC &AMARC Community Media Roundtable around the theme: Amplifying Pacific Voices – Claiming Communication Rights through Community Radio.

Pacific members of WACC and AMARC, which included young women and rural correspondents from FemLINKPacific, along with representatives of SIGNIS, listened and reflected on the Post 2015 Development Agenda and recorded personal statements on the 17-point proposed Sustainable Development Goals – calling for a process of accountability that included intergenerational voices, and did not further marginalise the voices of people with disabilities, the LGBT community, indigenous and minority peoples and churches from the Pacific.

The Assembly reaffirmed WACC Pacific’s objectives to:

• Advocate for a just, inclusive and peaceful Pacific where all peoples can claim their legitimate right to self-determination;

• Use communication rights to address poverty of information and communication in order to hold governments accountable;

• Provide leadership programmes and capacity building spaces for women, young women and men to produce content that communicates their human rights which contributes to a sustainable network; and

• To provide leadership training and capacity building to current leaders on a periodical basis to transcend power or to current leaders to challenge the status quo.

In its affirmation of its objectives, the Assembly noted that the issue of self-determination for Maohi/French Polynesia and Kanaky/New Caledonia remains unresolved.

It further noted the need for the issue of the gross human rights abuse of the West Papuan people and their struggle for self-determination to be strongly advocated. WACC Pacific commits to work to communicate the cry of West Papua to Pacific Island countries outside Melanesia, where much of the advocacy and awareness is greatly needed and to the WACC community and other global networks.

The Assembly further committed to:

1. Strengthening community radio (broadcast or Internet) associations and/or networks in the Pacific by developing and promoting model legislation on community radio / media regulations and access to public service broadcasting in areas where community radio is new and where community radios are advancing communication rights.

2. Strategies to advance and ensure long-term participation of women in all aspects of community radio with a particular focus on Francophone countries in the Pacific with a community radio exchange (including Vanuatu).

3. Better and stronger knowledge and good practice-sharing in the community radio movement – by way of a community radio stocktake and needs assessment for technical training, programme production and distribution, radio management and access to opensource software.

WACC Pacific commits to this by the strengthening of the regional communication rights network.