World Bank J4P Program Hosts State-Supported Community Justice Workshop

In Honiara:
Alison Ofotalau
Phone: +677 21444
E-mail: aofotalau@worldbank.org

HONIARA, October 26, 2011 – From October 26 to 28, the World Bank's Justice for the Poor (J4P) program is convening an international workshop on the role of state-supported community justice systems at the Heritage Park Hotel. Equitable and responsive justice systems play a critical role in promoting development and resolving conflict and this workshop will explore how to support equitable dispute resolution at the local level.
 
State justice institutions, like courts and police, are often one element of a variety of systems that can resolve disputes.  Traditional leaders, religious leaders, and other community groups also play a role in dispute resolution and some governments have created institutions which seek to bridge state and community-based approaches—such as the Local Courts in Solomon Islands, Island Courts in Vanuatu, and Village Courts in Papua New Guinea.  Each of these systems incorporate community decision makers into state-supported dispute resolution processes and generally allow for the application of kastom.

The workshop is bringing together over eighty participants from Melanesia, Africa and East Asia—including over fifty participants from outside Solomon Islands—who work in community justice systems, including those who play an oversight or policy role, civil society, donor and academic participants. The workshop was officially opened today, with welcoming remarks being delivered by the Chief Justice, Sir Albert Palmer, and the keynote address being delivered by the Minister for Justice and Social Affairs for Vanuatu, the Honorable Ralph Regenvanu.

J4P’s State-Supported Community Justice Workshop is discussing the role that community justice systems may play in expanding access to justice and resolving conflict.  Issues under discussion include how the various systems work from the user’s perspective, what are their strengths and weaknesses, how they deal with different groups, including women, and how they deal with land disputes.

The workshop is building on an on-going project of the Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs that the World Bank has been supporting named Justice Delivery Locally. To date, Justice Delivered Locally has involved visits to four provinces in order to determine what justice systems are operating at the local level across Solomon Islands as well as their legitimacy and effectiveness.  Through a better understanding of local dispute resolution, the Justice Delivered Locally project works to support equitable dispute resolution arrangements.   

Regional Media Contacts:

Sydney
Aleta Moriarty +61 2 92356545                             
E-mail: amoriarty@worldbank.org