Department of Justice and Attorney General have agreed that revitalization and progress of the Village Courts will be the flagship of the Law and Justice Sector in Papua New Guinea.
Attorney General, Dr Eric Kwa, made this known on Wednesday, 24th November.
“We want to include the rule of law, right in the village and at the community level,” he said.
He was speaking at the launch of three key documents on the Underlying Law by the Constitutional and Law reform Commission (CLRC).
“Over the last 45 years, so much focus has been given to the top and we are giving little attention to the 19,000 people who are the front liners of the law and justice sector, working throughout the country.”
“We are focusing on the village courts and the government has agreed and they have approved the strategy on improving the village courts and by next week. They will be approving the village courts policy for the first time since independence that will allow us to provide village court services in our rural areas.”
Dr Kwa said an important component of that revitalization program is the role of custom in laws.
“I am happy to announce that the Secretary for CLRC has written to us asking for our focus on village courts and whether they can participate in our program by targeting the customary laws in the village courts.
“We have agreed to partner with CLRC and hopefully next year when we set the mechanisms, we can also bring in support from CLRC when we go to a village court area.”
He added that DJAG has tried to go through the normal government system to get budget support for CLRC but that has proven to be difficult.
“We have not been able to succeed in the last couple of years. They can work with us as a sector agency and we can progress work on the fortification of custom.