Villiage Courts & Land Mediation Secretariat

1. Introduction:

The brief will cover areas of staff, Village Courts, Land Mediation, funding, impact of the reform policy, (Papua New Guinea – Australia Law and Justice Partnership Papua New Guinea – Australia Law and Justice Partnership (PALJP), Village Court Officials and Land Mediators allowances, re-establishment of Village Courts to Bougainville and general administration of Village Courts and Land Mediation activities.

2       Village Courts in Papua New Guinea

 Administration

Village Courts and Land Mediation services like other law and justice agencies in the community are concerned with the promotion of peace and good order in the community.  The Village Courts is regulated by the Village Courts Act 1989 and the Land Mediation is regulated by the Land Disputes Settlement Act (Chapter No. 45).

The administration of the Village Courts was managed through the Village Courts Secretariat until 1995 when functions, roles and responsibilities were transferred to Provincial Governments, as a result of the Organic Law on Provincial Governments and Local-Level Governments passed by Parliament in 1995.  The administration and management of the Land Mediation is split with one part administered and managed by the Village Courts Secretariat of the Department of Justice and Attorney General and Provincial Administrators while the other part Village Courts and Land Mediation Secretariat and Provincial Governments or the Provincial Administrations administer and manage the mediation and particularly the Magisterial Services administer the Local Land Court and Provincial Land Courts.

The Village Courts and Land Mediation Secretariat advises the NEFC on  the allowances for Village Court Officials and  permanent and Ad-hoc Land Mediators, supply of documents for records and administer the appointment of Local Land Court Magistrates, Provincial Land Court Magistrates and Permanent Land Mediators.

The Magisterial Service supervises Village Court decisions, appeals and reviews and the judicial aspects of the Local Land Court and Provincial Land Court in terms of its magistrates hearing Land Court cases while the former Field Officers of the Provincial Affairs Department now Provincial Administration (District Officer – Lands) also manage the mediation process in the province in facilitating disputes settlement to reach the formal system.

The national government allocates funds annually to provinces for supporting Village Courts and paying allowances.

The White Paper – Law & Justice

The White Paper, GoPNG and Law & Justice (2007) calls for a ‘revitalised village courts system’. Effectively this means that the current system needs significant improvements in a number of areas:

• Collaboration amongst relevant stake holders. Village Courts can no longer isolate themselves.
• Legislative Framework.
• Capacity Building.
• Appointments and Revocations; and
• Administrative matters relating to PVCOs and officials.

   Since 2007 the Secretariat has managed Development Budget funding to address training, the IMS Capacity Building provinces and a Legislative Review. Village Courts are the most significant restorative justice service in Papua New Guinea’s law & justice sector.

Role of Village Courts & Land Mediation Secretariat

Village Courts and Land Mediation Secretariat is a Branch in the Department of Justice and Attorney General, established under Section 3 of the Village Courts Act 1989 is headed by the Executive Director who is responsible to the Deputy Secretary (Legal Policy & Justice Administration and to the Secretary & Attorney General.  There are fourteen (14) Officers in the Secretariat responsible for Village Courts and Land Mediation in the country. Thirty one approved positions are still awaiting funding.

In line with the reform policy under the Organic Law on Provincial Governments and Local-Level Governments most of the roles and responsibilities of Village Courts were transferred to Provincial Governments however, these functions have not been satisfactorily performed by Provincial Governments throughout Papua New Guinea.

The functions of the Secretariat are to:

1. Administer GoPNG Policy on Village Courts
2. Monitor and keep under review the Village Courts Act 1989
3. Strengthen the capacity of and provide support to provincial governments which administer Village Courts on a day to day basis
4. Administer the appointment and gazettal of Village Court Magistrates, Chairmen, Deputy Chairman and gazettal of Village Courts areas
5. Manage and implement a national Village Courts & Land Mediation Information Management System (IMS)
6. Foster awareness of and increase skills of all participants in addressing gender, family violence and HIV and AIDS in Village Courts work.

3       Status of Village Courts in 2010

Village Courts is a system set up as authorised under Section 172 of the National Constitution. Functions, roles and responsibilities are determined under the Village Courts Act, 1989.  It is administered by the Village Courts Secretariat and deals with disputes in the local communities and resolve disputes through mediation by application of customary law. A Village Court is comprised of:

                   1 x Chairman

                   1 x Deputy Chairman

                   3 x Magistrates

                   4 x Peace Officers

                   1 x Clerk

These people are lay people or community leaders who are selected by their community; however before they exercise their responsibility they are appointed by the Minister for Justice. The standard number of officials per Village Court area is ten (10), however, this can vary depending on number of factors such as population and geographical locations of people.

Village Courts has criminal jurisdiction in respect of offences that are prescribed offences under the Act and those listed in the Village Courts Regulations.  It has also civil jurisdiction which is limited by Section 48 of the Village Courts Act.

Currently there are 1414 Village Courts throughout the country, covering approximately eighty six percent (86%) of the country with more than 14,000 officials.  These officials received an allowance per month of:

          Chairman                        -        K32.70

          Deputy Chairman            -        K29.06

          Village Magistrates          -        K26.64

          Peace Officers                 -        K24.22

          Clerks                             -        K24.22

This rate has not changed in 30 years.

• Information Management System

 The Secretariat has been building the national IMS for the past 3 years and has involved entering data collected in hard copy since 1975. The details of over 17,000 Officials and 1400 court areas have been entered and are constantly been updated. This is a very big job and will take at least another 2 years to complete.

The Village Court Officials’ Listing is one that needs to be up dated continually as changes take place in Village Courts. It is almost impossible to have a listing which will be 100% correct because of the continual changes to be expected from a workforce of 14,000 officials.

• In the old data base (which now forms part of the new Information Management System) there was no indication of gender thus making it difficult to identify the difference between female and male officials especially for the local names.  Over time we will correct this and the number of women will increase.
• Currently the Village Courts Officials Listing is been updated with assistance from Officials Listings provided by Provincial Village Courts Officers (PVCO) from each province.
• With the exception of Eastern Highlands Province the distribution of officials is distributed unevenly across the country.
• A review process of all officials is currently in progress in Provinces. This will mean a big increase in the number of female officials by the time the review process is completed.
• We are aware of at least another 100 appointments of women to Village Courts positions currently being prepared for gazettal by Provincial Village Court Staff.
• Village Courts & Land Mediation Secretariat has a goal to achieve, and that is to have at least one female official in all Village Courts throughout the country. When this is achieved we will have at least 1,400 women magistrates.

The table shows the distribution of Village Courts by provinces in Papua New Guinea

Submission to increase the allowances has been prepared for the Minister for Justice to take up in National Executive Council.

Since 2005 the Government appropriated K20, 154,400.00 for the allowances of Village Court Officials and Land Mediators and took back the responsibility of paying allowances. Another total of K8, 898,400.00 as of 2009 is being allocated as Functional Grants to Village Courts through the Provincial Governments. Bougainville and National Capital District are only the exception that do not received separate funding but they received grants together with other grants.   In 2006 there was a significant increase of K11,705, 800.00 mainly to off-set outstanding allowances?  This excludes the amount of K13.5 million released to the Department of Justice and Attorney General in December 2005 for payment of outstanding allowances by the Finance and Treasury Department.

5       Women in village courts

As a result of main streaming cross – cutting issues in Village Courts & Land Mediation, there has been a number of female Village Courts Officials appointed for each province in PNG. As of 10^th November, 2009 there are at least 410 female officials working in the Village Courts system, around 360 are women. The number of female officials is made up of around eighty percent (80%) magistrates and twenty percent (20%) Clerks. There are very few women appointed as Peace Officers.

Since 2004 there has been a very big increase in the number of Village Court female magistrates. To the best of our knowledge, in 2004 there were around 10 female magistrates, today there are at least 300 with many more being recruited and appointed in review processes currently taking place in many provinces.

Source: This information has been taken from the National Village Courts Information Management System (IMS), Officials’ Listings.

Statistics gathered from the Village Courts & Land Mediation Secretariat Information System Data Base are as follows;

• Eastern Highlands Province is leading with a total of 84 female magistrates with one in almost every Village Court in the province. This figure could increase after all proclamation and gazettal processes are completed.
• Southern Highlands Province has also done well with a total number of female officials of 80.
• Enga Province has at least 56 female officials.
• Autonomous Region of Bougainville has a total number of 47 female officials. Interestingly there are already Female Deputy Chairpersons in some Village Courts.
• The next two provinces with most number of female officials are National Capital District and Milne Bay with a total of twenty seven each.
• Madang has a total of 20 female officials. There are more Court Clerks followed magistrates and peace officers.
• There are fifteen female officials in Western Province.
• Next provinces with the most number of female Village Courts officials are Central and Simbu with a total of 9. For Central, this figure represents only one District in the Province.
• East New Britain and Manus provinces both have eight female officials each.
• Remaining Provinces West New Britain (4), Morobe and East Sepik (3 each) Sandaun (2) and Western Highlands and Gulf both have one female official each. This brings the total number of female officials to 410 in all.

Table below shows number of female officials in the country

3. LAND MEDIATION

Land mediation is provided for under the Land Disputes Settlement Act (Chapter No. 45) to provide for the settlement of disputes in relation to interest in customary land. Land Court Secretariat administers and manages the Land Court however, after 1989 the Land Court Secretariat was merged with the Village Courts Secretariat due to the rationalization and deterioration of poor state of Papua New Guinea economy in early 1990’s.

Currently there are 1,500 permanent land mediators and ad-hoc mediators in the country and should be paid an allowance of:

          -        Permanent Land Mediator -   K125.00 per quarter

          -        Ad – Hoc Mediator              -   K10.00 per mediation

However, if the Mediator is not appointed by the Provincial Land Disputes Committee or in the case of Ad-Hoc Mediators they are paid 50% or what the Provincial Governments pay. There are 20 Land Mediation Areas in the country with 500 Land Mediation Divisions.