As part of its mandate in promoting access to justice, the Papua New Guinea Centre for Judicial Excellence (PNGCJE) has successfully delivered two Basic Mediation Skills Trainings (BMST).

The two training programmes were held in Port Moresby between May 30 and June 15, 2022.

The trainings were delivered online by Risk Response Engage Design (RREDD) in Australia which were attended by 42 participants, comprising of few judges and magistrates from PNG Courts with Court staff and lawyers from the Office of the Solicitor General of PNG.

The facilitators from Australia included RREDD Lead Trainer Mr. Craig Jones, Justine Davis and Bradley Chenoweth. The PNG based team of facilitators included trainer/coach Mr Andrew Kwimberi of Pacific Dispute Resolution Services (PNG) Ltd, Justice Joseph Yagi, Justice Iova Geita, Justice Jeffrey Shepherd, Chief Magistrate Mark Pupaka, Deputy Chief Magistrate (Lands) Mark Selefkariu, Assistant Registrar (ADR) Mrs. Jean Kalamo, private lawyer Mrs. Rachael Maniet and Ms Jermah Kambao (co-coach).

The main objective of the programs was for the participants to understand and explain the basic procedures of the mediation process and develop new skills for conducting mediation.

As once mentioned by the Deputy Chief Justice Ambeng Kandakasi during an interview with PNGCJE, “mediation helps reduce the backlog of cases and speeds up the delivery of justice”, thereby, more lawyers and other professionals should be trained to become certified mediators.

Assessments of the participants on these trainings were done and reports were provided to give a more realistic measurement of the training skills level obtained and the understanding of the entire mediation process by the participants.