SG's Speech - 13th Annual Prosecution Conference, Fiji
13TH ANNUAL PROSECUTION CONFERENCE
Warwick Fiji Resort & Spa, Korolevu
3 – 5 December 2007
KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY MR GREG URWIN
SECRETARY GENERAL
PACIFIC ISLANDS FORUM SECRETARIAT
Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Thank you for the opportunity to be with you this morning – I’m very grateful for the opportunity to be so.
2. All the more so because needless to say, I have little to contribute, specifically, on the important and timely subject of the Conference. That being so, I thought the most sensible thing to do with the time available might be to offer some comment on some of the regional activities in which the Forum is currently engaged, especially those which, I hope, may be of some general interest to you.
3. In the thirty six years of its life – it held its first meeting in Wellington in 1971 – the Forum has grown considerably as, I suppose, organisations such as this are inclined to do. It was established primarily because the newly independent countries, and those about to become independent, wanted their own voice, a voice they felt was not being sufficiently provided by the existing regional organisation, the South Pacific Commission, which had been founded in 1947 and which, it was felt at the time, was too dominated by the colonial and former colonial powers. In that regard, it is interesting to note that New Zealand and Australia were founding members of the Forum, but only after a good deal of debate.
4. The Forum’s early focus was on economic cooperation and the potential for development which might be derived from it. The pursuit of that objective is still very much at the core of the Forum’s work, but our agenda now includes a range of political matters and trade, security governance and social issues, many of them, of course, closely inter-related.
5. About four years ago, we had reached a point in the Pacific where our Leaders, faced with an array of challenges – some domestic, some regional, many encapsulated in the word “globalisation”, were looking for a deeper measure of regional cooperation, one which might, in an as yet undetermined way, take us into a fuller regional integration than we now enjoy. To that end they called for the development of what has become known as the Pacific Plan.
6. Essentially, they wanted to test the potential for creating stronger and deeper links among the sovereign countries of the region and identify the sectors where the region could gain the most from sharing resources of governance and aligning policies. Its development during 2004 and 2005 was carried forward by a Task Force comprising senior official representatives from all Forum countries and representatives from regional organisations, with a Core Group of Leaders providing leadership oversight. Development of the Plan was, relative to past practice in the region, underpinned by an extensive 12-month consultative process, which included quite broad-based consultations at national level; and input also from regional NSAs and other civil society and private sector organisations, Pacific non-sovereign territories, and development partners.
7. To create awareness of the benefits of regionalism and the Pacific Plan, the Forum Secretariat held seminars at national and regional levels on the broader issues of strengthening regional cooperation, integration and the provision of public goods. That whole consultation process will need to be further developed – there is a predictable but certainly justifiable range of views about its quality thus far – if the Plan is really to become a sustainable integration mechanism. It was adopted by Leaders at their Annual Meeting in Port Moresby in October 2005.
8. The Plan, with its range of priority initiatives organised around four inter-related goals of economic growth, sustainable development, good governance and security, is now in its initial implementation phase – in other words, the hard part.
9. We shall be completing the first three year phase of implementation of the Plan in 2008 and this will involve a quite rigorous analysis of just how much progress we have been making. My own sense is that, overall, a fair start has been made but that we shall need to find the will and the stamina to keep at it for an unforeseeably long period of time. Where is the process taking us? A good and very open question. Just how cohesive may we expect to become as a region, given our diversity, our far-flung nature and our resource limitations? In what sense are we truly a region? Are we so simply so because history and the colonial powers told us we were, or are there enough common interests to bind us in a long-term way? And what will be the nature of the future relationship between the island countries of the South Pacific and Australia and New Zealand and between the North Pacific and the Asian mainland? All of that said, the range and character of the challenges we face does seem to demand that we take the practical opportunities for cooperation as far as we can. We shall simply have to see whether by the accretion of particular measures over time, the regional habit strengthens to the point where the current arrangements, basically voluntary in nature, develop into something more binding.
10. If I may, I will now offer one or two things about some of the issues related mainly to the Good Governance and Security pillars of the Plan which may be of some interest to you.
11. The strategic objective of the Forum’s Good Governance work programme is “improved transparency, accountability, equity and efficiency in the management and use of resources in the Pacific”. I think most people would now consider it axiomatic that Good governance is a prerequisite for sustainable development and economic growth, and as outlined in the Vision they adopted when adopting the Pacific Plan, and consistent with its priority initiatives, Forum Leaders are seeking: “a Pacific region that is respected for the quality of its governance, the sustainable management of its resources, the full observance of democratic values and for its defence and promotion of human rights"
12. At last year’s Leaders’ Meeting in Nadi, it was that greater attention be given to implementing Initiatives 12.5 and 12.6 of the Pacific Plan which pertain to human rights and good governance issues. As you will know the human rights agenda is, globally speaking, well established in the International Bill of Human Rights comprising the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; and two optional protocols, plus more than 80 other human rights treaties which spell out specific areas of human rights requiring attention internationally.
13. While ratification of these instruments and enactment of local legislation vary from country to country, common challenges in the Pacific are a lack of capacity to develop, implement and enforce country-appropriate legislation. Some of the barriers involve:
• The lack of financial resources and skilled personnel, compromising efficient and effective police forces, prison conditions and judiciaries;
• The need to reconcile traditional and formal legal systems;
• The need for relevant legislation and expertise to address country specific and emerging issues such as people trafficking, protection of refugees and asylum seekers;
• Levels of corruption, impunity, lack of transparency and abuse of office;
• Discrimination and violence against women and children;
• Limited capacity to implement and enforce legislation dealing with acceptable work conditions;
• The general lack of legislation and services pertaining to people with physical and mental disabilities;
• Lack of data documenting human rights abuses.
14. As a way forward to strengthen human rights and development in the region, the Pacific Plan identifies a range of initiatives, the most important of which are:
• The ratification and implementation of rights-based international and regional conventions and agreements; and support for meeting reporting and other requirements. This work includes: the drafting, harmonisation and promotion of awareness of rights-based domestic legislation within the Pacific to cover: the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW); the Convention on the Rights of a Child (CRC); the Convention on Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD); the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 169 on Rights of Indigenous Peoples; Article 50 of the Cotonou Agreement on labour rights; the 1990 International Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers and their families; the Biwako Millennium Framework for people with disabilities; and the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR1325) involving men and women in conflict resolution. The Forum Secretariat has been collaborating with a number of organisations to help carry out this initiative;
• Support for the regional consolidation of commitments to key institutions such as audit and ombudsmans’ offices, leadership codes, anti-corruption institutions and departments of attorneys general; including through judicial training and education. This set of objectives includes the establishment of: a regional ombudsman and other human rights mechanisms to support the implementation of the Forum’s accountability and leadership principles; a regional audit service to support integrity and oversight; and a regional anti-corruption agency with associated legislation;
• Enhancement of governance mechanisms, including in resource management; and in the harmonisation of traditional and modern values and structures. This includes support for the close coordination of existing initiatives, including the University of the South Pacific’s governance institute (Pacific Institute for Advanced Studies in Development and Governance);
• The development of a strategy to support participatory democracy and consultative decision-making (including Non-State Actors (NSAs), youth, women and disabled), and electoral process.
15. Recent developments have included a region-wide exercise which identified strategies to address some of the issues impeding ratification of core international human rights treaties. In addition the Secretariat’s collaboration with the New Zealand Law Reform Commission, the New Zealand Human Rights Commission, and the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights saw the completion of three important research papers on the interface between custom and human rights in the Pacific, forms of national human rights institutions for Pacific states, and the added value of ratification of those human right treaties for those states.
16. These three important pieces of work, all of which are the result of regional consultations, will provide some responses to the issues and obstacles that Forum Island Countries face in meeting the requirements of ratification of core international human rights treaties and the establishment of national human rights institutions. In the meantime, the Secretariat and its partners are facilitating more in-country dialogue on these issues. Resources permitting, we are looking at the establishment of a Human Rights position to consolidate and elevate human rights work in the region.
17. Assistance also continues to be available to Forum Island Countries interested in adopting leadership codes. Members who have yet to do so are encouraged to adopt leadership codes as a means of implementing the Leaders’ commitment to the principles in the Biketawa Declaration and the Forum Principles of Good Leadership adopted by them in 2003. The Secretariat is working with the UNDP Pacific Centre, AusAID and the Australian Ombudsman to undertake investigations into options to support the concept of a regional ombudsman, and a proposed meeting of the region’s ombudsmen next year will hopefully take this forward. Similar work is ongoing in respect of the establishment of a regional audit facility. The Secretariat is also reviewing with the UNDP Pacific Centre further work on sub-regional anti-corruption plans, in the context of the United Nations’ Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC).
18. On the Forum Principles of Good Leadership and Accountability, the Secretariat is working closely with partners on raising awareness of ethics and accountability issues. Further impetus for this work is expected through the Pacific Leadership Programme (PLP). This is a major initiative arising from the White Paper on the Australian Government aid programme. PLP seeks to: to contribute to improving governance in the region through improving leadership practices emerging at national, local and regional levels.
19. The Programme will be overseen by a Pacific Leadership panel comprised of eminent Pacific Islanders, with AusAID and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat. Upon its establishment PLP, through a range of delivery organisations in different countries will implement the Programme across the Pacific. The Programme will provide grant funding to individual governments, civil society and other organisations in each country. The initial phase of the Programme will cover Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Tonga, Samoa and East Timor.
20. Security is defined by the Pacific Plan broadly, as the stable and safe social and political conditions necessary for, and reflective of, good governance and sustainable development for the achievement of economic growth, a definition which, I understand, is derived from the International Commission on Human Security. As such, it is addressed across a broad range of the Plan’s initiatives. Specific issues are also pursued in areas generally described as “hard” security, and I’d like to describe a couple of them because they would seem to touch on some of your concerns.
21. The Secretariat has commenced researching the issues surrounding criminal deportees. The first regional consultation has been conducted in Tonga. It was very well received and, as we speak, the Secretariat is in the Cook Islands, conducting the second series of consultations. Deportation policies implemented by a number of countries including Australia, New Zealand and the United States have been questioned as to the impact they may have upon the receiving Pacific state. It has been argued that these policies are contributing to increasing crime rates and an increase in violent crime, which domestic law enforcement establishments are not sufficiently equipped to manage.
22. The objective of this project is to qualify the issue of criminal deportees for Forum Members, identify the regional and international law enforcement issues, and develop strategies to manage them.
23. To combat transnational organised criminal groups in the Pacific, the Secretariat is advancing national and regional information management and exchange strategies through which agencies will enjoy an enhanced capacity to record, analyse and act on national criminal intelligence reports. Further benefits arise from performance reporting, data collection to generate strategic assessments in support of government and regional decision making, and the introduction of a secure communication system, all of which will serve to develop a regional response to transnational crime. It is hoped that through these activities we can develop an environment that fosters close cooperation and effective operational linkages among all border agencies.
24. In terms of Legislative support a Regional Model Counter Terrorism and Transnational Organised Crime Bill has been completed. The Secretariat is now working with each FIC Attorney-General to adapt the model law and ensure compliance with the domestic legislative obligations of each FIC under the Honiara and Nasonini Declarations, important law and order-related instruments adopted by Forum Leaders over the last decade or so. Assistance with domestic legislative drafting priorities has been offered to each FIC by the Forum Secretariat’s Legal Drafting Unit. Assistance is also being provided to members to further refine the Honiara suite of model laws to meet both the needs of Forum Island Countries and international standards.
25. Alongside this the Secretariat is developing a strategic review of counter terrorism initiatives aimed at developing a regional counter terrorism strategy. While there is a recognition that the risk or terrorist attacks within the region remains low, we must, obviously, also bear in mind that distance is no guarantee of immunity. We do need to be aware that there is a risk of groups or entities engaging in the support of terrorist activity and of Pacific Island Countries becoming a safe haven. This has led to the implementation of a number of Counter Terrorism measures by member and donor/partner states throughout the region.
26. It has been noted previously however, that the cost of compliance with international counter terrorism regimes is disproportionately high for small countries. Just keeping track of developments in counter terrorism strategies and regimes can be impossibly difficult. Competing priorities and limited resources still impact upon the Pacific Island Countries’ ability to engage fully in these strategies and initiatives, and this has prompted the Secretariat to undertake this counter terrorism review. What we need to do, is highlight those initiatives that require a response, but also in a way that makes the impact on Pacific Island Countries reasonable.
27. In respect of transnational crime, we are emphasizing the importance of generating a meaningful transnational crime assessment, in the face of the continuing problem of inadequate data supply. Many Pacific Island Countries rely on paper based systems that meet domestic collection needs but are less effective as regards analytical and dissemination practices. For example, border passenger records, while gathered, are rarely used to produce reports which can be used by different agencies within government, limiting the capacity of government to respond to external threats whether they be in the form of transnational crime or terrorist entities. While, in the long term, the Forum’s national and regional information management project will address many, if not all of these issues, we are currently reviewing the transnational crime assessment to address some of the more immediate issues.
28. We are also engaged in a number of regional capacity building initiatives coordinated through our Law Enforcement Unit. One such initiative is the facilitation of front line law enforcement Border Document Training. This programme recognises that the use of false or fraudulent travel documentation to facilitate illegal migration by individuals and organised crime groups is a significant problem in the region. Additionally, Forum members have indicated the need to continually update the skills of those tasked with managing the movement of people and goods through their borders.
29. This is certainly not an area for complacency, and the breadth of security related issues and the responses they require, in turn, requires a methodical, structured and consultative approach, which with the continued support of people such as yourselves, will help to ensure that the region remains, by global standards, a safe one.
30. Forum members continue to take steps to strengthen and improve their anti-money laundering regimes and systems. And the Pacific Anti-money Laundering project (PALP), operating from the Secretariat, has been providing technical assistance to Forum members through training, mentoring and capacity building initiatives. Fiji is one of several Forum members that has benefited from PALP’s technical assistance.
31. In June of this year Fiji recorded its first money laundering conviction. The presiding judge in that hearing had attended a sub-regional judicial workshop on money laundering and proceeds of crime a few weeks earlier and was, I’m happy to say, very complimentary about the benefits of attending the workshop.
32. The DPP’s office took part in a national workshop on civil forfeiture, funded by PALP in September of this year. The workshop was organised for prosecutors and related government officials. The civil forfeiture provisions in Fiji are still relatively new, and the workshop provided a useful opportunity for prosecutors and the judiciary to address procedural and evidentiary issues in the application of these provisions.
33. Fiji, through its National Anti-money Laundering Committee, has also been receiving assistance from PALP in implementing the recommendations of a World Bank Report on its anti-money laundering and counter terrorism regime.
34. As work on the Pacific Plan has progressed, our realisation that the general question of legal capacity underpins so many of its objectives, has strengthened. Almost everything in the Pacific Plan has a legal component. Regional cooperation, regardless of the sector, requires agreements or arrangements between countries and more often than not, changes to laws within them. Any move toward more comprehensive regional integration in the longer term will mean both new regional treaties and national constitutional and legislative changes. The increasing recognition within the Forum Secretariat of the importance of these legal issues within the Pacific Plan, has led to the consideration of developing stronger legal cooperation and infrastructure in the region. Strengthening legal sector cooperation has included:
• coordination of a Review aimed at strengthening the Pacific Islands Law Officers’ Network (PILON). The Secretariat has also strongly supported efforts by the Pacific Islands Law Officers’ Network (PILON), to enhance its role as a focal point for regional cooperation among government legal officers ;
• development with partners of a joint Plan of Action to strengthen legal drafting capacity in FICs;
• liaison in support of donor-funded regional initiatives such as the Pacific Islands Legal Information Institute (PACLII) and the Pacific Judicial Development Programme (PJDP); and
• conduct of preliminary research on the operation and needs of traditional courts in FICs.
35. Assessments of legal infrastructure within each Forum Island Country have led to the exploration of regional legal institutions in two areas: regional judicial services and courts, and the provision of legislative reform and drafting services. The potential for positive steps towards regional integration in these two areas has recently been formalised within the Pacific Plan, with the endorsement of a new Pacific Plan Initiative – “Legal Infrastructure Strengthening”. This Initiative was approved by the Forum Leaders last month in Tonga. The objectives of this initiative are: “to deepen regional cooperation between key actors in the legal sector in the region, including senior government law officers, legislative drafters and judges; and explore the possibilities for regional support, including through pooling of resources and regional integration, in legal institutions and mechanisms providing legislative services, and in the area of judiciaries, courts and tribunals”. It has two areas of focus, namely the judicial system and the legislative process.
36. The groundwork for strengthened cooperation within the Judiciary has involved conducting preliminary research into the operation and needs of traditional courts in FICs and ultimately at a later stage establishing a Pacific court encompassing a jurist pool, appellate jurisdiction and problem solving capabilities. A scoping study into this concept of further developing regional judicial and court services has been endorsed by the Pacific Leaders at their Conference in October this year and has also attracted the support of a number of Pacific Island Chief Justices.
37. In reference to the legislative process the Legal Sector Specific Initiative will focus on the development of legislation, law reform and legislative drafting. And it will look at the regional solutions as well as the need to strengthen the legislative process in each FIC. Two of the options to be explored include a regional law reform mechanism and regional assistance for legislative drafting. In reference to legislative drafting the initiative will build upon the work which the Forum Secretariat is doing in partnership with the Commonwealth Secretariat and the USP Law School concerning the development of sustainable legislative drafting capacity. Initially this work will involve the commissioning of a scoping study in 2008 to identify how we might proceed. Most Forum Island Countries lack specialist legal drafting capacity. An Action Plan has therefore been initiated to cater for and provide sustainable legislative capacity building (that offers help with recruitment, training, support and retention of Pacific Island lawyers as legislative drafters) for all fourteen Forum Island Countries.
38. Let me conclude, if I may, by describing briefly some of our recent activities under the rubric of the Biketawa Declaration. At the 2000 Forum Leaders meeting in Kiribati, the Leaders adopted a security framework for the region, named after the location at which it was adopted. The Declaration is basically a mechanism which allows the Forum to come to the assistance of a member country in times of crisis or trouble. It is the first mechanism of its kind in the region, a recognition that the problems of one may be the problems of all. It has been invoked three times since 2000 by the state concerned - by Solomon Islands, and in somewhat different circumstances, by Nauru and by Fiji.
39. In respect of the situation in Fiji, I think it can be said that the Forum has again demonstrated that it can play a constructive leadership role in efforts to resolve crises within our region. Prior to the events of 5 December 2006, the Forum convened a meeting of Forum Ministers, at Fiji’s request, to help address the impasse then existing between the Government and the Republic of Fiji Military Forces. In January, with the agreement of all parties, an Eminent Persons Group visited Fiji. The EPG’s Report was endorsed by Forum Foreign Ministers in March and significantly, has also been used by members of the wider international community as a reference point in formulating their own policy approaches.
40. We are continuing to promote dialogue between Fiji and other Forum members aimed at an early return to parliamentary democracy, through the Forum-Fiji Joint Working Group, a grouping created at the direction of the Foreign Ministers. Practical outcomes of that Working Group, which has met on twenty occasions, have been an independent technical assessment of an election timetable for Fiji and the identification of the resources needed by Fiji to meet that timetable.
41. At the recent Pacific Islands Forum Leaders’ Meeting in Tonga, Heads of Government:
(a) endorsed the findings of the EPG Report following its mission to Fiji from 29 January to 1 February 2007 and the outcomes of the Forum Foreign Affairs Ministers’ Meeting in March 2007 as an appropriate way forward to the restoration of constitutional and democratic government in Fiji;
(b) welcomed the undertaking by the Leader of the Fiji Interim Government to the Forum Leaders that a parliamentary election will be held in the first quarter of 2009, and noted that he also stated to Forum Leaders that he and the Republic of Fiji Military Forces will accept the outcome of the elections in the first quarter of 2009;
(c) called on the Fiji Interim Government now to work with the Forum-Joint Working Group to produce a credible roadmap to those elections at that time according to the Constitution and laws of Fiji, and urged the Interim Government to accord the highest priority to this task;
(d) noted that the Interim Government is pursuing an initiative to produce a People’s Charter;
(e) expressed appreciation for the support which members of the international community have accorded to the Forum’s actions in addressing the pathway to election by the first quarter of 2009;
(f) commended the work carried out by the Fiji/Forum Joint Working Group in seeking to advance the pathway to elections by the first quarter of 2009; and
(g) called for a meeting of the Forum Foreign Affairs Ministers early next year to review the progress being made towards the election in the first quarter of 2009.
42. For us now, the next step will be the convening of that Foreign Ministers’ Meeting. We will continue to work in support of Fiji’s efforts to bring its situation to normality.
43. Thank you for listening to me so patently this morning. It has not all been scintillating stuff, but I hope you will agree that the Form is engaged in a substantial body of work in areas relevant to you. Thank you, again, for the opportunity to share some of it with you.
Warwick Fiji Resort & Spa, Korolevu
3 – 5 December 2007
KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY MR GREG URWIN
SECRETARY GENERAL
PACIFIC ISLANDS FORUM SECRETARIAT
Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Thank you for the opportunity to be with you this morning – I’m very grateful for the opportunity to be so.
2. All the more so because needless to say, I have little to contribute, specifically, on the important and timely subject of the Conference. That being so, I thought the most sensible thing to do with the time available might be to offer some comment on some of the regional activities in which the Forum is currently engaged, especially those which, I hope, may be of some general interest to you.
3. In the thirty six years of its life – it held its first meeting in Wellington in 1971 – the Forum has grown considerably as, I suppose, organisations such as this are inclined to do. It was established primarily because the newly independent countries, and those about to become independent, wanted their own voice, a voice they felt was not being sufficiently provided by the existing regional organisation, the South Pacific Commission, which had been founded in 1947 and which, it was felt at the time, was too dominated by the colonial and former colonial powers. In that regard, it is interesting to note that New Zealand and Australia were founding members of the Forum, but only after a good deal of debate.
4. The Forum’s early focus was on economic cooperation and the potential for development which might be derived from it. The pursuit of that objective is still very much at the core of the Forum’s work, but our agenda now includes a range of political matters and trade, security governance and social issues, many of them, of course, closely inter-related.
5. About four years ago, we had reached a point in the Pacific where our Leaders, faced with an array of challenges – some domestic, some regional, many encapsulated in the word “globalisation”, were looking for a deeper measure of regional cooperation, one which might, in an as yet undetermined way, take us into a fuller regional integration than we now enjoy. To that end they called for the development of what has become known as the Pacific Plan.
6. Essentially, they wanted to test the potential for creating stronger and deeper links among the sovereign countries of the region and identify the sectors where the region could gain the most from sharing resources of governance and aligning policies. Its development during 2004 and 2005 was carried forward by a Task Force comprising senior official representatives from all Forum countries and representatives from regional organisations, with a Core Group of Leaders providing leadership oversight. Development of the Plan was, relative to past practice in the region, underpinned by an extensive 12-month consultative process, which included quite broad-based consultations at national level; and input also from regional NSAs and other civil society and private sector organisations, Pacific non-sovereign territories, and development partners.
7. To create awareness of the benefits of regionalism and the Pacific Plan, the Forum Secretariat held seminars at national and regional levels on the broader issues of strengthening regional cooperation, integration and the provision of public goods. That whole consultation process will need to be further developed – there is a predictable but certainly justifiable range of views about its quality thus far – if the Plan is really to become a sustainable integration mechanism. It was adopted by Leaders at their Annual Meeting in Port Moresby in October 2005.
8. The Plan, with its range of priority initiatives organised around four inter-related goals of economic growth, sustainable development, good governance and security, is now in its initial implementation phase – in other words, the hard part.
9. We shall be completing the first three year phase of implementation of the Plan in 2008 and this will involve a quite rigorous analysis of just how much progress we have been making. My own sense is that, overall, a fair start has been made but that we shall need to find the will and the stamina to keep at it for an unforeseeably long period of time. Where is the process taking us? A good and very open question. Just how cohesive may we expect to become as a region, given our diversity, our far-flung nature and our resource limitations? In what sense are we truly a region? Are we so simply so because history and the colonial powers told us we were, or are there enough common interests to bind us in a long-term way? And what will be the nature of the future relationship between the island countries of the South Pacific and Australia and New Zealand and between the North Pacific and the Asian mainland? All of that said, the range and character of the challenges we face does seem to demand that we take the practical opportunities for cooperation as far as we can. We shall simply have to see whether by the accretion of particular measures over time, the regional habit strengthens to the point where the current arrangements, basically voluntary in nature, develop into something more binding.
10. If I may, I will now offer one or two things about some of the issues related mainly to the Good Governance and Security pillars of the Plan which may be of some interest to you.
11. The strategic objective of the Forum’s Good Governance work programme is “improved transparency, accountability, equity and efficiency in the management and use of resources in the Pacific”. I think most people would now consider it axiomatic that Good governance is a prerequisite for sustainable development and economic growth, and as outlined in the Vision they adopted when adopting the Pacific Plan, and consistent with its priority initiatives, Forum Leaders are seeking: “a Pacific region that is respected for the quality of its governance, the sustainable management of its resources, the full observance of democratic values and for its defence and promotion of human rights"
12. At last year’s Leaders’ Meeting in Nadi, it was that greater attention be given to implementing Initiatives 12.5 and 12.6 of the Pacific Plan which pertain to human rights and good governance issues. As you will know the human rights agenda is, globally speaking, well established in the International Bill of Human Rights comprising the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; and two optional protocols, plus more than 80 other human rights treaties which spell out specific areas of human rights requiring attention internationally.
13. While ratification of these instruments and enactment of local legislation vary from country to country, common challenges in the Pacific are a lack of capacity to develop, implement and enforce country-appropriate legislation. Some of the barriers involve:
• The lack of financial resources and skilled personnel, compromising efficient and effective police forces, prison conditions and judiciaries;
• The need to reconcile traditional and formal legal systems;
• The need for relevant legislation and expertise to address country specific and emerging issues such as people trafficking, protection of refugees and asylum seekers;
• Levels of corruption, impunity, lack of transparency and abuse of office;
• Discrimination and violence against women and children;
• Limited capacity to implement and enforce legislation dealing with acceptable work conditions;
• The general lack of legislation and services pertaining to people with physical and mental disabilities;
• Lack of data documenting human rights abuses.
14. As a way forward to strengthen human rights and development in the region, the Pacific Plan identifies a range of initiatives, the most important of which are:
• The ratification and implementation of rights-based international and regional conventions and agreements; and support for meeting reporting and other requirements. This work includes: the drafting, harmonisation and promotion of awareness of rights-based domestic legislation within the Pacific to cover: the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW); the Convention on the Rights of a Child (CRC); the Convention on Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD); the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 169 on Rights of Indigenous Peoples; Article 50 of the Cotonou Agreement on labour rights; the 1990 International Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers and their families; the Biwako Millennium Framework for people with disabilities; and the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR1325) involving men and women in conflict resolution. The Forum Secretariat has been collaborating with a number of organisations to help carry out this initiative;
• Support for the regional consolidation of commitments to key institutions such as audit and ombudsmans’ offices, leadership codes, anti-corruption institutions and departments of attorneys general; including through judicial training and education. This set of objectives includes the establishment of: a regional ombudsman and other human rights mechanisms to support the implementation of the Forum’s accountability and leadership principles; a regional audit service to support integrity and oversight; and a regional anti-corruption agency with associated legislation;
• Enhancement of governance mechanisms, including in resource management; and in the harmonisation of traditional and modern values and structures. This includes support for the close coordination of existing initiatives, including the University of the South Pacific’s governance institute (Pacific Institute for Advanced Studies in Development and Governance);
• The development of a strategy to support participatory democracy and consultative decision-making (including Non-State Actors (NSAs), youth, women and disabled), and electoral process.
15. Recent developments have included a region-wide exercise which identified strategies to address some of the issues impeding ratification of core international human rights treaties. In addition the Secretariat’s collaboration with the New Zealand Law Reform Commission, the New Zealand Human Rights Commission, and the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights saw the completion of three important research papers on the interface between custom and human rights in the Pacific, forms of national human rights institutions for Pacific states, and the added value of ratification of those human right treaties for those states.
16. These three important pieces of work, all of which are the result of regional consultations, will provide some responses to the issues and obstacles that Forum Island Countries face in meeting the requirements of ratification of core international human rights treaties and the establishment of national human rights institutions. In the meantime, the Secretariat and its partners are facilitating more in-country dialogue on these issues. Resources permitting, we are looking at the establishment of a Human Rights position to consolidate and elevate human rights work in the region.
17. Assistance also continues to be available to Forum Island Countries interested in adopting leadership codes. Members who have yet to do so are encouraged to adopt leadership codes as a means of implementing the Leaders’ commitment to the principles in the Biketawa Declaration and the Forum Principles of Good Leadership adopted by them in 2003. The Secretariat is working with the UNDP Pacific Centre, AusAID and the Australian Ombudsman to undertake investigations into options to support the concept of a regional ombudsman, and a proposed meeting of the region’s ombudsmen next year will hopefully take this forward. Similar work is ongoing in respect of the establishment of a regional audit facility. The Secretariat is also reviewing with the UNDP Pacific Centre further work on sub-regional anti-corruption plans, in the context of the United Nations’ Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC).
18. On the Forum Principles of Good Leadership and Accountability, the Secretariat is working closely with partners on raising awareness of ethics and accountability issues. Further impetus for this work is expected through the Pacific Leadership Programme (PLP). This is a major initiative arising from the White Paper on the Australian Government aid programme. PLP seeks to: to contribute to improving governance in the region through improving leadership practices emerging at national, local and regional levels.
19. The Programme will be overseen by a Pacific Leadership panel comprised of eminent Pacific Islanders, with AusAID and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat. Upon its establishment PLP, through a range of delivery organisations in different countries will implement the Programme across the Pacific. The Programme will provide grant funding to individual governments, civil society and other organisations in each country. The initial phase of the Programme will cover Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Tonga, Samoa and East Timor.
20. Security is defined by the Pacific Plan broadly, as the stable and safe social and political conditions necessary for, and reflective of, good governance and sustainable development for the achievement of economic growth, a definition which, I understand, is derived from the International Commission on Human Security. As such, it is addressed across a broad range of the Plan’s initiatives. Specific issues are also pursued in areas generally described as “hard” security, and I’d like to describe a couple of them because they would seem to touch on some of your concerns.
21. The Secretariat has commenced researching the issues surrounding criminal deportees. The first regional consultation has been conducted in Tonga. It was very well received and, as we speak, the Secretariat is in the Cook Islands, conducting the second series of consultations. Deportation policies implemented by a number of countries including Australia, New Zealand and the United States have been questioned as to the impact they may have upon the receiving Pacific state. It has been argued that these policies are contributing to increasing crime rates and an increase in violent crime, which domestic law enforcement establishments are not sufficiently equipped to manage.
22. The objective of this project is to qualify the issue of criminal deportees for Forum Members, identify the regional and international law enforcement issues, and develop strategies to manage them.
23. To combat transnational organised criminal groups in the Pacific, the Secretariat is advancing national and regional information management and exchange strategies through which agencies will enjoy an enhanced capacity to record, analyse and act on national criminal intelligence reports. Further benefits arise from performance reporting, data collection to generate strategic assessments in support of government and regional decision making, and the introduction of a secure communication system, all of which will serve to develop a regional response to transnational crime. It is hoped that through these activities we can develop an environment that fosters close cooperation and effective operational linkages among all border agencies.
24. In terms of Legislative support a Regional Model Counter Terrorism and Transnational Organised Crime Bill has been completed. The Secretariat is now working with each FIC Attorney-General to adapt the model law and ensure compliance with the domestic legislative obligations of each FIC under the Honiara and Nasonini Declarations, important law and order-related instruments adopted by Forum Leaders over the last decade or so. Assistance with domestic legislative drafting priorities has been offered to each FIC by the Forum Secretariat’s Legal Drafting Unit. Assistance is also being provided to members to further refine the Honiara suite of model laws to meet both the needs of Forum Island Countries and international standards.
25. Alongside this the Secretariat is developing a strategic review of counter terrorism initiatives aimed at developing a regional counter terrorism strategy. While there is a recognition that the risk or terrorist attacks within the region remains low, we must, obviously, also bear in mind that distance is no guarantee of immunity. We do need to be aware that there is a risk of groups or entities engaging in the support of terrorist activity and of Pacific Island Countries becoming a safe haven. This has led to the implementation of a number of Counter Terrorism measures by member and donor/partner states throughout the region.
26. It has been noted previously however, that the cost of compliance with international counter terrorism regimes is disproportionately high for small countries. Just keeping track of developments in counter terrorism strategies and regimes can be impossibly difficult. Competing priorities and limited resources still impact upon the Pacific Island Countries’ ability to engage fully in these strategies and initiatives, and this has prompted the Secretariat to undertake this counter terrorism review. What we need to do, is highlight those initiatives that require a response, but also in a way that makes the impact on Pacific Island Countries reasonable.
27. In respect of transnational crime, we are emphasizing the importance of generating a meaningful transnational crime assessment, in the face of the continuing problem of inadequate data supply. Many Pacific Island Countries rely on paper based systems that meet domestic collection needs but are less effective as regards analytical and dissemination practices. For example, border passenger records, while gathered, are rarely used to produce reports which can be used by different agencies within government, limiting the capacity of government to respond to external threats whether they be in the form of transnational crime or terrorist entities. While, in the long term, the Forum’s national and regional information management project will address many, if not all of these issues, we are currently reviewing the transnational crime assessment to address some of the more immediate issues.
28. We are also engaged in a number of regional capacity building initiatives coordinated through our Law Enforcement Unit. One such initiative is the facilitation of front line law enforcement Border Document Training. This programme recognises that the use of false or fraudulent travel documentation to facilitate illegal migration by individuals and organised crime groups is a significant problem in the region. Additionally, Forum members have indicated the need to continually update the skills of those tasked with managing the movement of people and goods through their borders.
29. This is certainly not an area for complacency, and the breadth of security related issues and the responses they require, in turn, requires a methodical, structured and consultative approach, which with the continued support of people such as yourselves, will help to ensure that the region remains, by global standards, a safe one.
30. Forum members continue to take steps to strengthen and improve their anti-money laundering regimes and systems. And the Pacific Anti-money Laundering project (PALP), operating from the Secretariat, has been providing technical assistance to Forum members through training, mentoring and capacity building initiatives. Fiji is one of several Forum members that has benefited from PALP’s technical assistance.
31. In June of this year Fiji recorded its first money laundering conviction. The presiding judge in that hearing had attended a sub-regional judicial workshop on money laundering and proceeds of crime a few weeks earlier and was, I’m happy to say, very complimentary about the benefits of attending the workshop.
32. The DPP’s office took part in a national workshop on civil forfeiture, funded by PALP in September of this year. The workshop was organised for prosecutors and related government officials. The civil forfeiture provisions in Fiji are still relatively new, and the workshop provided a useful opportunity for prosecutors and the judiciary to address procedural and evidentiary issues in the application of these provisions.
33. Fiji, through its National Anti-money Laundering Committee, has also been receiving assistance from PALP in implementing the recommendations of a World Bank Report on its anti-money laundering and counter terrorism regime.
34. As work on the Pacific Plan has progressed, our realisation that the general question of legal capacity underpins so many of its objectives, has strengthened. Almost everything in the Pacific Plan has a legal component. Regional cooperation, regardless of the sector, requires agreements or arrangements between countries and more often than not, changes to laws within them. Any move toward more comprehensive regional integration in the longer term will mean both new regional treaties and national constitutional and legislative changes. The increasing recognition within the Forum Secretariat of the importance of these legal issues within the Pacific Plan, has led to the consideration of developing stronger legal cooperation and infrastructure in the region. Strengthening legal sector cooperation has included:
• coordination of a Review aimed at strengthening the Pacific Islands Law Officers’ Network (PILON). The Secretariat has also strongly supported efforts by the Pacific Islands Law Officers’ Network (PILON), to enhance its role as a focal point for regional cooperation among government legal officers ;
• development with partners of a joint Plan of Action to strengthen legal drafting capacity in FICs;
• liaison in support of donor-funded regional initiatives such as the Pacific Islands Legal Information Institute (PACLII) and the Pacific Judicial Development Programme (PJDP); and
• conduct of preliminary research on the operation and needs of traditional courts in FICs.
35. Assessments of legal infrastructure within each Forum Island Country have led to the exploration of regional legal institutions in two areas: regional judicial services and courts, and the provision of legislative reform and drafting services. The potential for positive steps towards regional integration in these two areas has recently been formalised within the Pacific Plan, with the endorsement of a new Pacific Plan Initiative – “Legal Infrastructure Strengthening”. This Initiative was approved by the Forum Leaders last month in Tonga. The objectives of this initiative are: “to deepen regional cooperation between key actors in the legal sector in the region, including senior government law officers, legislative drafters and judges; and explore the possibilities for regional support, including through pooling of resources and regional integration, in legal institutions and mechanisms providing legislative services, and in the area of judiciaries, courts and tribunals”. It has two areas of focus, namely the judicial system and the legislative process.
36. The groundwork for strengthened cooperation within the Judiciary has involved conducting preliminary research into the operation and needs of traditional courts in FICs and ultimately at a later stage establishing a Pacific court encompassing a jurist pool, appellate jurisdiction and problem solving capabilities. A scoping study into this concept of further developing regional judicial and court services has been endorsed by the Pacific Leaders at their Conference in October this year and has also attracted the support of a number of Pacific Island Chief Justices.
37. In reference to the legislative process the Legal Sector Specific Initiative will focus on the development of legislation, law reform and legislative drafting. And it will look at the regional solutions as well as the need to strengthen the legislative process in each FIC. Two of the options to be explored include a regional law reform mechanism and regional assistance for legislative drafting. In reference to legislative drafting the initiative will build upon the work which the Forum Secretariat is doing in partnership with the Commonwealth Secretariat and the USP Law School concerning the development of sustainable legislative drafting capacity. Initially this work will involve the commissioning of a scoping study in 2008 to identify how we might proceed. Most Forum Island Countries lack specialist legal drafting capacity. An Action Plan has therefore been initiated to cater for and provide sustainable legislative capacity building (that offers help with recruitment, training, support and retention of Pacific Island lawyers as legislative drafters) for all fourteen Forum Island Countries.
38. Let me conclude, if I may, by describing briefly some of our recent activities under the rubric of the Biketawa Declaration. At the 2000 Forum Leaders meeting in Kiribati, the Leaders adopted a security framework for the region, named after the location at which it was adopted. The Declaration is basically a mechanism which allows the Forum to come to the assistance of a member country in times of crisis or trouble. It is the first mechanism of its kind in the region, a recognition that the problems of one may be the problems of all. It has been invoked three times since 2000 by the state concerned - by Solomon Islands, and in somewhat different circumstances, by Nauru and by Fiji.
39. In respect of the situation in Fiji, I think it can be said that the Forum has again demonstrated that it can play a constructive leadership role in efforts to resolve crises within our region. Prior to the events of 5 December 2006, the Forum convened a meeting of Forum Ministers, at Fiji’s request, to help address the impasse then existing between the Government and the Republic of Fiji Military Forces. In January, with the agreement of all parties, an Eminent Persons Group visited Fiji. The EPG’s Report was endorsed by Forum Foreign Ministers in March and significantly, has also been used by members of the wider international community as a reference point in formulating their own policy approaches.
40. We are continuing to promote dialogue between Fiji and other Forum members aimed at an early return to parliamentary democracy, through the Forum-Fiji Joint Working Group, a grouping created at the direction of the Foreign Ministers. Practical outcomes of that Working Group, which has met on twenty occasions, have been an independent technical assessment of an election timetable for Fiji and the identification of the resources needed by Fiji to meet that timetable.
41. At the recent Pacific Islands Forum Leaders’ Meeting in Tonga, Heads of Government:
(a) endorsed the findings of the EPG Report following its mission to Fiji from 29 January to 1 February 2007 and the outcomes of the Forum Foreign Affairs Ministers’ Meeting in March 2007 as an appropriate way forward to the restoration of constitutional and democratic government in Fiji;
(b) welcomed the undertaking by the Leader of the Fiji Interim Government to the Forum Leaders that a parliamentary election will be held in the first quarter of 2009, and noted that he also stated to Forum Leaders that he and the Republic of Fiji Military Forces will accept the outcome of the elections in the first quarter of 2009;
(c) called on the Fiji Interim Government now to work with the Forum-Joint Working Group to produce a credible roadmap to those elections at that time according to the Constitution and laws of Fiji, and urged the Interim Government to accord the highest priority to this task;
(d) noted that the Interim Government is pursuing an initiative to produce a People’s Charter;
(e) expressed appreciation for the support which members of the international community have accorded to the Forum’s actions in addressing the pathway to election by the first quarter of 2009;
(f) commended the work carried out by the Fiji/Forum Joint Working Group in seeking to advance the pathway to elections by the first quarter of 2009; and
(g) called for a meeting of the Forum Foreign Affairs Ministers early next year to review the progress being made towards the election in the first quarter of 2009.
42. For us now, the next step will be the convening of that Foreign Ministers’ Meeting. We will continue to work in support of Fiji’s efforts to bring its situation to normality.
43. Thank you for listening to me so patently this morning. It has not all been scintillating stuff, but I hope you will agree that the Form is engaged in a substantial body of work in areas relevant to you. Thank you, again, for the opportunity to share some of it with you.
