Transitional Justice Pacific Roundtable Discussion

No Peace Without Justice and its local partner the Fiji Women's Rights Movement organised a Pacific Roundtable Discussion on Non-Judicial Accountability Mechanisms in Fiji on 24-27 June 2008. The meeting was organised with the financial support of the European Union, the Governments of Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.
 
The purpose of the Roundtable was to address challenges to human rights, democracy and the rule of law at country and sub-regional levels. Participants were invited from Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu. Strengthening the rule of law, human rights and democracy is a common challenge across these Pacific Island countries. While each country will have its own specific solutions, the sharing of ideas, experience and approaches at the regional level can lead to innovative and workable solutions being found at the country level. Participants included leaders drawn from government, civil society, including the media and lawyers, the military and the police.
 
The four-day roundtable provided an opportunity to analyse various topics such as:

• the role of accountability in the promotion and protection of the rule of law, democracy and human rights;
• the role of Constitutions and other legal mechanisms in conflict prevention and post-conflict accountability;
• the role of the legal profession and other members of civil society in promoting and upholding the rule of law, democracy and human rights;
• the international criminal justice system, including mechanisms for addressing war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, with a particular focus on the International Criminal Court;
• national formal and informal justice systems, including the role of the independence of the judiciary; and
• national formal and informal mechanisms, including traditional or “neo-traditional” mechanisms, designed to promote conflict resolution, reconciliation and similar goals. 

 
The Roundtable Discussion concluded with recommendations for addressing specific problems related to human rights, democracy and the rule of law at the country and sub‑regional levels. Discussions held on formal and informal mechanisms also helped participants to elaborate what justice or accountability processes their country has experience with and what systems are there or have there been to address accountability, with a view to identifying the ingredients and components of the various accountability mechanisms relate to their explicitly declared, and/or non-declared objectives, and provide examples for future reference to other countries.
 
Final Document
 
Program