Pacific

Diabetes Fiji will host youths from Tuvalu, Tonga, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

Its project manager Viliame Qio says the first-of-its-kind event will train participants in how to lead diabetes associations and help others with the disease in their countries.

He says part of the conference involves a health camp, where participants will meet with doctors and learn more about food, oral care and eye health.

The assurance was conveyed during a one hour dialogue led by Foreign Affairs Minister, Julie Bishop, on Wednesday morning with ministers from 12 of the 16 Forum Island Countries.

Australia is a key member of the Umbrella Group comprised of Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Kazakstan, Norway, Russian Federation, Ukraine and the United States.

Minister Bennett refused to give New Zealand’s support to an explicit goal in the Paris climate agreement to limit global warming to a 1.5 degree increase, despite growing support from allies including Australia

The Island Climate Update, compiled by New Zealand's NIWA with other meteorological agencies and the Pacific Regional Environment Programmme, says each of those countries has experienced significantly lower than expected rain levels in the past five to six months.

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."