Pacific

The fifth Prime Minister's Pacific Youth Awards were held to recognise achievement and encourage success for young Pasifika in the arts, business, sport, leadership, and, for the first time, science.

The winner of the Leadership category was 17-year-old Leorida Peters, an Aucklander of Samoan descent, who was recognised for inspiring her community to have its voice heard more widely on the international stage.

Reaffirmation of the Pacific’s position was made by Dame Meg Taylor, the Secretary General of the Fiji-based Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, and also the Pacific Ocean Commissioner.

A good agreement Dame Taylor says would be one that keeps temperature rise at well below 1.5 degrees Celsius, features a stand-alone lost and damage mechanism, and offers new and scaled up financing.

The new alliance has agreed a common position on some of the most divisive aspects of the proposed deal.

However, the EU climate commissioner Miguel Arias Canete says talks are still ongoing on how to accommodate a 1.5 degrees warming limit within the agreement.

But 12 extra Pacific Island women every day have received help from crisis support services in the three years since Australia set up its $320 million, 10-year program to help improve the lives of women in the region.

The Turnbull government is aggressively pursuing the program, which was launched by then prime minister Julia Gillard at the Pacific Islands Forum summit in the Cook Islands in 2012.

In Fiji last night, Minister for International Development and the Pacific Steven Ciobo delivered a report on progress in the first three years.

The chief executive of the Pacific Disability Forum says one in five people estimated to be living with some form of disability in the Pacific face many entrenched cultural and physical barriers to full participation.

Setareki Macanawai says at least 16 countries in the region have signed or ratified the UN convention on the rights of persons with disabilities but he says there is still a lack of action on the ground.

The UN's '16 days of Activism against Gender-based Violence' campaign is currently in full-swing, with events taking place throughout the Pacific.

The UN Women's Deputy Representative for Fiji, Nicolas Burniat says the issue affects the majority of women, with two out of three women in the region experiencing violence.

"This is the largest single violation of human rights in the world, it's also the crime that's the least prosecuted and punished. And it's a real threat to peace and development. But if you look at the Pacific the amounts are double."

The idea behind the vessel day scheme is that by putting a cap on the total number of fishing days available in PNA waters, demand from fishing vessels would bid up the price of each day.

In the past four years returns from the vessel day scheme have quadrupled but now the US fleet says it has to return days already sold under the US Tuna Treaty because it can’t afford to fish.

In the last 18 months catches have hit new records but with so many fish being taken prices have dropped dramatically.

In that expanse of ocean much goes on unseen by naval patrols, satellites and aircraft.

Most of that activity is illegal fisheries. According to a 2008 study, as much 11 to 26 million tonnes of fish valued at $USD23billion is lost to illegal operators.

When Indonesian Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti warned the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission meeting here of the threat of illegal fishing, she called it a trans-national crime.

"I totally emphathise with their claims. For them it's a matter of life and survival. Any increase beyond 1.5 or 2 degrees will significantly threaten their island nations.

The Pacific Prevention Domestic Violence Programme began in 2006 with the aim of raising police standards when dealing with domestic violence cases.

Its programme officer, Nga Utanga, spoke at a special screening of the New Zealand film, Once Were Warriors, which is based around domestic violence, at the Nothing Less than Equal Film Festival in Suva.

Utanga says like the work they do in the region, the film shows people having the courage to overcome violence.