Romitesh Kant

Keeping the Frame, Opening the Door: The Supreme Court’s Take on Fiji’s 2013 Constitution In August 2025, Fiji’s Supreme Court delivered a landmark opinion on the validity and amendability of the country’s 2013 Constitution. In this article, Romitesh Kant and Mereoni Chung trace how the Co

📢New piece! Fiji’s Supreme Court reshaped the rules of constitutional change. By affirming the 2013 Constitution but easing its rigid amendment hurdles, the Court kept the frame while opening the door to democratic reform: bit.ly/4mgT0fd

✍️ @mereoni.bsky.social & @romiteshkant.bsky.social

The contours of masculinity: leadership, ethnicity, and gendered power in Fiji’s 2022 elections This article examines how political masculinities were performed, contested, and institutionalised during and after Fiji’s 2022 general elections. Drawing on political masculinities, decolonial cri...

New article out in The Round Table: Fiji’s 2022 elections reconfigured—but didn’t dismantle—the masculinised foundations of power. How patriarchal authority survives reform by adapting + shapeshifting. Read here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Fijian politician Lynda Tabuya's private video and public dismissal - ABC Pacific On Christmas Eve 2024 Lynda Tabuya found out a private video she had made for her husband was circulating on social media. She was soon dismissed from her cabinet role in Fiji's government.

Romitesh Kant, PhD scholar from our @anudpa.bsky.social, speaks to ABC about Fijian politician Lynda Tabuya and how cyberbullying is weaponised to silence Pacific women in politics.
🎧: quicklink.anu.edu.au/0979

@anu-asiapacific.bsky.social

A Fiji (parliament) for all Fijians? The impact of gender-blind and race-blind electoral provisions in a divided society In a gendered and racialized society, what do gender-blind and race-blind electoral provisions mean for diversity in politics? This question is particularly important for Fiji, a country with a pos...

New open access article from @romiteshkant.bsky.social & me on how the 2013 Fiji constitution limits diversity & inclusion in politics www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Our perspective piece in @pacificconsbio.bsky.social provides 8 strategies for "Increasing Pacific Islander research and authorship in the academic literature". @romiteshkant.bsky.social @mereoni.bsky.social @rufinovarea.bsky.social Free to download: www.publish.csiro.au/PC/PC25011

Australian Journal of Biography and History: No. 9, 2025 <p>This special issue of the <em>Australian Journal of Biography and History</em>, ‘Oceania Lives’, showcases a collection of writing and dialogue from an emerging group of Pacific scholars interested...

Get your copy today: doi.org/10.22459/AJBH.09.2025

@ausdictionarybiog.bsky.social @romiteshkant.bsky.social @anudpa.bsky.social @anu-chl.bsky.social @kteaiwa.bsky.social @amywayness.bsky.social @auswhn.bsky.social

The Pacific Ocean of peace: a promise or a paradox? Using Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka’s articulation of the region as an ‘Ocean of Peace’ as an entry point, this article examines the competing visions of peace and sovereignty in the Pacifi...

Well worth a read. @mereoni.bsky.social and @romiteshkant.bsky.social paper on "The Pacific Ocean of peace: a promise or a paradox?" www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Anne Salmond: Govt de-funding the mind Comment: The Government's decision to cut humanities and social science research from its major funding stream is both bad policy and scientifically illiterate, writes Dame Anne Salmond

"It is also scientifically illiterate. This is policy-making at its most arbitrary and self-defeating."

Hannah Arendt is not the oracle she is now being proposed to be. Her empathy, but her larger logics of humanism, are stained with her silence on colonial slavery’s bloodletting.

Exciting development for LBQ women & people in the Pacific.

Through the work of DIVA for Equality networks, here are position papers for use of Govts, CROPs, dev agencies, UN, CSO & social movement. Our 1st-ever research by & for #LBQ human rights.

Access policy briefs here: tinyurl.com/42yezkav

a problem is that a lot of men are too misogynistic to believe women, even if we plainly say it to their face.

when you stop reading "believe women" as "women never lie" and see it as "one of the foundational myths of patriarchy is that women can never be trusted" it makes a lot more sense.

Climate Diplomacy’s $300 Billion Failure Climate negotiations at COP29 ended in a deal that mostly showed how far the world is from facing climate change’s real dangers.

Much of the money in this agreement climate negotiators reached in Baku will likely be structured as debt, even though, @zoeschlanger.bsky.social writes, that stands in the way of COP’s stated goals.

Israel and its supporters cannot gaslight the law Arguments that the ICC is ‘criminalising’ self-defence by issuing arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant are absurd.

"The ICC’s intervention serves a critical purpose: to uphold the universal principles of humanity enshrined in international law. Accountability is essential to deterring future violations and ensuring justice for victims."

— #AJOpinion by Refik Hodzic ⤵️

The newest version of the NCQG (read new #ClimateFinance goal) just released at #COP29 can be summarized in one word: Atrocious. Emphasizing urgency of action while failing to take it and offering up such a paltry number. Developing countries should walk out until developed countries get serious.

Arms to Israel: Will countries halt sales in wake of ICC arrest warrants? The arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant could lead to countries rethinking arms deals with Israel, experts say

Western nations that sell arms to Israel may be forced to re-evaluate their trade agreements after the ICC arrest warrants against Israeli PM Netanyahu and ex-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” in Gaza, say experts ⤵️

In light of the ICC arrest warrants issued against Israeli PM Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, analyst Neve Gordon says there is “substantial” evidence of Israel using food as a method of war in Gaza.

🔴 Read analysis: aje.io/kz2x6n

🚨 New #COP29 climate finance text is out.

A vague $1.3T target with no teeth, $250B in debt-creating finance, 0 commitment to end fossil fuels & no mention of #HumanRights nor #LossAndDamage.

Rich countries are dodging climate responsibilities & vulnerable nations will again pay the price.

An international arrest warrant has been issued for Netanyahu.

If you want him arrested, Like.
If it needs to be right now, RT.

Thinking back on the legacy of the Biden/Harris administration and sincerely the only substantial thing that comes to mind is that they coordinated a genocide. Hard to see past that fact.

Senate vote on resolution 111: 79 voted nay and 19 voted yea.

BREAKING: US Senate Resolution 111 that would block arms sales to Israel didn’t pass. The US is not only complicit in genoside. It is an active participant.

Resistance is a muscle that must be exercised regularly or it risks being weakened over time by forces who are pushing conformity to injustice.

Palestine against an eco-apartheid world In coming years, eco-apartheid will become more prominent worldwide as colonial violence is used to maintain and safeguard Western interests and profits. We are seeing this future in Gaza today.

The Palestinian resistance is currently articulating the clearest expression of anti-colonial dissent, of a national liberation movement that refuses to have its humanity cancelled, and its populations erased and sacrificed for the imperial core. mondoweiss.net/2024/11/pale...

Thank you for joining @romiteshkant.bsky.social and so lovely to be soaked with oceans of feminist analysis, politics, proposals and more. So very healing to organise and to discuss all these issues with the Pasifika collective and community.

As I write my PhD chapter on feminist and queer challenges to masculinities in Fiji, I’m inspired by this webinar featuring incredible, powerful Pacific feminists. Their work and resilience in challenging patriarchies in diff spaces are vital to our region’s justice movements.

Palauan youth file UN Complaint alleging human rights violations by U.S. military — BlueOceanLaw FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 19, 2024 Palauan youth file UN Complaint alleging human rights violations by U.S. military Today, Guam-based international law firm Blue Ocean Law filed a submissio...

www.blueoceanlaw.com/blog/palauan...