The Chief Justice of Papua New Guinea Sir Gibbs Salika and Chairman of the Pacific Judicial Centre for Judicial Excellence.  Justice John Carey Judge Administrator PNG Centre for Judicial Excellence, and Mrs. Stacey Levakia- Wali, Assistant Director PNGCJE and Program Officer for the Judicial Sector in the Pacific Countries were in Auckland, New Zealand last week to attend the first Pacific Regional Meeting.

The forum was hosted under the auspices of the Pacific Justice Sector Programme (PJSP), which, led by New Zealand, collaborates with Pacific nations to provide training and professional development opportunities for judges, lay judicial officers, and court staff.

During the meeting, Justice Carey outlined PCJE’s strategic intentions for 2025 and beyond which included:

1. Capacity building for judicial excellence across the Pacific to strengthen the competence, integrity and ethical standards of judges, magistrates, and court officers across PNG and the Pacific;
2. Enhancing judicial education through regional cooperation, to improve legal knowledge and research capacity across the Pacific through shared education programs;
3. Expanding access to justice and legal awareness in remote customary law contexts to improve legal literacy, dispute resolution, and access to formal justice systems, especially for rural and customary law communities;
4. Strengthening institutional governance, anti-corruption and judicial independence to enhance transparency, accountability, and ethical governance in judicial systems across the Pacific;
5. Supporting digital transformation and modernization of the judiciary across the Pacific to improve judicial efficiency and accessibility through digital technology; and
6. Strengthening regional and international collaboration for judicial excellence to reinforce PCJE as a leader in regional judicial training and capacity-building.

The objective of the meeting was to hold discussion on improving collaboration and utilizing resources to better coordinate support across the organisations, in line with core priorities for the Pacific justice sector as identified by each organization represented.