by Sarah Aupong – EM TV News, Port Moresby
The law and justice sector in the country has received a boost with the signing of an MOU between the Constitutional Law Reform Commission (CLRC) and the Australian National University (ANU).
The MOU covers training opportunities especially in research methods for officers within the law and justice sector in the country.
The 5 year MOU follows a research training that 5 CLRC staff received at the ANU early this year.
CLRC Secretary, Dr Eric Kwa, said the benefits of the training urged them to seek assistance for further training not only for CLRC staff but for other law and justice institutions as well.
The training was conducted by the State Society & Governance in Melanesia (SSGM) Program at the ANU.
“The research methodology that we are working with CLRC in this current program is helping towards getting better equipped to give evidence based policy advice,” said Anthony Regan who works at the SSGM.
While the basis of the work of the Constitutional Law Reform Commission relates to law, the work demands that officers must have strong research skills to undertake the review of the country’s existing laws and various proposals to amend the law.
The Chairman of the CLRC, Joseph Lelang, says this training will boost the capacity of their staff.
He says this training will be able to equip the officers so that “they can be able to defend their findings, they can be able to scientifically approach it,” he said.
Apart from training, the MOU grants access to CLRC staff to the ANU library and its resources. It also offers the possibility for support to hold law conferences and the opportunity for collaborative research which Chairman Lelang said will “remain the property of CLRC” and will be subjected to “independent assessment.”
The CLRC staff are currently under two weeks of training, which began this week.
The plan is that this type of tailored training will be made available to other institutions such as the Ombudsman Commission.
Funding for these trainings comes from the Australian Government through the PNG Australia Law & Justice Sector Program.
“We are all excited that it’s happening and we hope that the final outcome will be better output from this institution to government, ” Dr Kwa said.
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