BOUGAINVILLE IN 2024 – 6 September 2024 – in person and online – Free
Date: Friday 6 September
Time: 9.00 am – 1:00 pm AEDT
Where: Hedley Bull Lecture Theatre 1, ANU; AND online;
Free;
Please register at: Bougainville in 2024 | Humanitix
Please note that this is a hybrid event. For online attendance please sign up to obtain the Zoom link. Access link will be delivered via email upon registration.
In the morning of 6th September, the day following the two day State of the Pacific Conference (Wednesday 4th and Thursday 5th September), the Department of Pacific Affairs is organising a workshop on aspects of the current situation in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville.
At present, the following presentations are proposed:
• Social and other Impacts (including law and order) of the 9-year Bougainville conflict: Dennis Kuiai (Deputy Secretary Law and Justice Department, Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG)).
• The Panguna legacy process against Rio Tinto, and the separate class actions against Rio and BCL: Theonila Roka Matbob, (elected member for Ioro Constituency (covering the Panguna area), ABG Minister for Community Government, and Lead Complainant in the ‘legacy’ process initiated by the Melbourne Haman Rights Law Centre).
• The PACSIA Dialogue process in Bougainville, 2017-2024, and what it tells us about the views of Bougainvilleans over a 7-year period: James Tanis (former ABG President, now member of the Bougainville Independence Mission Advisory Team), and Serge Loode (Chair of the Board, PACSIA).
• The Bougainville conflict and peace process in a comparative ‘international context’: John Braithwaite (Professor Emeritus, ANU, and leader since 2004 of the 25 year ‘Peacebuilding Compared Project’ which examines hundreds of variables in – so far – over 70 post-WWII conflicts, see https://johnbraithwaite.com/peacebuilding/)
• The independence constitution-making process, the post-referendum decision-making process, and the future: Anthony Regan, (Professor of Constitutional Law, Department of Pacific Affairs, adviser to the ABG).
Prof Anthony Regan is a constitutional lawyer who specialises in constitutional development as part of conflict resolution. He has lived and worked in Papua New Guinea for 19 years (including over 3 years in Bougainville) and in Uganda for over 3 years. In PNG he has had a series of government jobs, advised on decentralisation policy and law, conducted research at IASER (now the PNG National Research institute), and taught at the UPNG Law Faculty. He has been an adviser to the Bougainville parties in the Bougainville peace process, since 1994. In Uganda he was a full-time constitutional adviser to the Government of Uganda. He has been involved in peace processes in relation to Bougainville, Sri Lanka, Naga areas of India, Solomon Islands, Ogaden (Ethiopia), and in post-conflict constitution-making processes, full time in Uganda (1991-94) and Bougainville (2002-04), as well as in East Timor, Solomon Islands, and Fiji.
