SUVA-BASED lawyer Ana Tuiketei Bolabiu says she only became aware she was the first Fijian woman to be included in the International Criminal Court registry of counsels after reading through the ICC history.

In an interview with this newspaper yesterday she said the appointment was a huge boost for women in the Pacific because gender inequality has been a regional issue for some time.

“I wish other people would have gone before me but you know we have got to start somewhere,” she said.

“I am a counsel with the International Criminal Court that’s based in the Hague in Netherlands on the list with 800 others.

“I just got involved in the process, I wasn’t thinking of the history or anything and then I got accepted and realised there was nobody else on the list.”

Mrs Bolabiu said while the ICC was based in the Hague, technology would allow her to work from Fiji.

“I think the advantage we have now, compared to 10 years ago, is that we have the advantage of technology.

“And the way that the Hague is set up, it’s not like how we run our national courts.

So it deals with investigations and it goes into prosecution and you work in teams.”