The Pacific Legal Policy Twinning Program 2019
14 October – 6 December 2019, Canberra, Australia
Following the Pacific Legal Policy Champions Program, Attorney General’s Department ran the 2019 Pacific Legal Policy Twinning Program. This year they hosted four twins, Superintendent Amelia Rokotuivuna (Fiji Police), Ms Florence Yalided Ramoni Tagini (Solomon Islands), Ms Teanneki Nemta (Kiribati) and Mr Immanuel Sawan (Papua New Guinea) (pictured above), who each worked on a priority legal policy related project for their home agency. A short summary from each twin on their project is below.
Superintendent Amelia Rokotuivuna, Deputy Director Police Prosecutions, Fiji Police Force, Fiji
Amelia has developed a draft of a Standard Procedure on Handling and Disposing Illicit Drugs Exhibit. The development of this Procedure is aimed at improving investigatory procedures on offences under the Illicit Drugs Control Act of 2004. Such procedures aim to strengthen professionalism, supervision and good practice.
Ms Teanneki Nemta, Senior State Attorney, Office of the Attorney General, Kiribati
The project changed from the repeal of the Criminal Procedure Code to drafting of the
consequential amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code, the Penal Code, the Fisheries Act and the Police Service Acts. Teanneki completed four draft Bills for substantial amendments to reflect the introduction for the new Director of Public Prosecutions Act 219 and began developing a policy paper on the issue of Attorney-General’s consent to prosecute certain crimes.
Ms Florence Yalided Ramoni Tagini, Senior Crown Counsel, Drafting Division, Attorney-General’s Chambers, Solomon Islands
Florence completed a first version of drafting instructions for a cybercrime legislation. The project reflects the minimum standards provided in the cybercrime international framework established in the Budapest Convention (the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime), looks at other similar regional provisions for guidance and is contextualised to suit Solomon Islands. In the drafting instructions, the stand-alone cybercrime legislation will cover definitions, offences, procedural powers and international cooperation.
Mr Immanuel Sawan, Legal Officer, Department of Justice & Attorney General, Papua New Guinea
Immanuel commenced two projects whilst in Canberra: a ‘baseline assessment’ and a ‘comparative analysis’ to inform drug law reform in Papua New Guinea. Emanuel progressed a baseline assessment report which will detail current approach to drugs that Papua New Guinea is taking and it will serve as a benchmark to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of country’s national drug strategy. The comparative analysis examines the Australian National Drug Strategy and the Kingdom of Tonga’s draft National Illicit Drugs Policy. The analysis aims to provide recommendations on ways forward in developing the national drug strategy for Papua New Guinea.
The AGD is looking forward to continuing to liaise with the Twinning Program participants and providing follow-up support for their policy projects, when needed.
