About this committee
The PILON Legislative Drafters’ Committee is a regional network for legislative drafters in the Pacific region. As a committee under PILON, it brings together key resources to build the capacity and expertise of the region’s legislative drafters. The Committee provides a valuable opportunity for Pacific legislative drafters to strengthen professional linkages, share information and knowledge and raise awareness of the importance of clear and consistent drafting practices.
Pacific legislative drafters have been coming together as a network since 2007 and have met frequently since then. The Pacific Legislative Drafters’ Technical Forum was initially hosted by the Commonwealth Secretariat, then received coordination support from the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS) from 2012 until 2019. In 2019, PILON agreed to support legislative drafters and it was adopted as a committee of PILON pursuant to Article 8 of the PILON Charter.
The Drafters’ Committee is currently developing a new work plan to build on the activities progressed in accordance with the Regional Action Plan for Sustainable Legislative Drafting Capacity Building.
Goals
The Regional Action Plan consists of five goals:
- enhanced regional networking;
- development/update of legislative drafting resources;
- strengthened knowledge, skills and capacity;
- improved regional resources to support legislative implementation of treaty obligations; and
- improved access to laws
Chair
- Savalenoa Mareva Betham-Annandale ( Attorney General, Samoa)
Members
All PILON members are also members of the Drafters’ Committee. The members of the Drafters’ Steering Committee that will provide support to drafters by coordinating and driving the future evolution of the PILON Legislative Drafters’ Committee are:
- Australia
- Fiji
- Nauru
- New Zealand
- Samoa
- Vanuatu
Recent meetings
Meeting of the Pacific Legislative Drafters’ Technical Forum
Suva, Fiji, 20 June 2019
Further reading
Pacific Toolkit: From policy to legislation
The Pacific Toolkit: From policy to legislation walks policy officers through the general policy development process, provides guidance on specific issues to consider when turning policy into law and sets out a range of practical matters that should be considered during the reform process.
