SPC RRRT is unique in that its programmed base continues to have a gender and a rights-based approach as
its foundation. In 1998 RRRT was awarded the prestigious UNICEF Maurice Pate Award for its cutting edge work in gender and human rights and, in 2005, it was chosen by the Office of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights (Asia Pacific Office) as one of 14 ‘best practice’ rights-based
projects in the region.
SPC RRRT has specific programs in Kiribati, Nauru, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and
Vanuatu, and works on request in all other SPC member countries and territories. With its partners, which
include governments and regional and civil society organizations, it has been described as a ‘cutting-edge
program in human rights capacity building, due to its approach of tackling both systemic and socioeconomic issues through interventions at the micro, meso and macro levels.
Its goal is to strengthen the capacity of the Pacific region to promote principles of human rights and good
governance in order to achieve democracy based on social justice. It seeks to achieve this goal at the country
level by providing training, mentoring, links and support to community organizations through its networks
of country focal officers, community paralegals and civil society partners. At the regional level, it seeks
achieve this goal by training lawyers, magistrates, judges and policy-makers to adopt and apply human
rights principles and good governance practices in their work.
SPC RRRT acknowledges the financial assistance of the United Nations Trust Fund to Eliminate Violence
Against Women and Australian AID in preparing and publishing this supplement to Law for Pacific
Women: A Legal Rights Handbook.