Senior Public Law Officers meet in Nuku'alofa [1]
Sunday, November 3, 2013 - 19:42
A two-day regional workshop on 'International Criminal Cooperation' which looked to strengthen cooperation in extradition and mutual assistance requests ended in Nuku’alofa on November 1, ahead of the 32nd PILON - Pacific Islands Law Officers’ Network Meeting next week.
Co-hosted by the Tonga and Australia's Attorney General's Offices under PILON, the workshop focused on learning and understanding the laws and procedures in Pacific countries regarding the formal return of accused persons or convicted criminals who abscond from one country to another.
Tonga’s Attorney General Neil Adsett said the workshop looked at the general rules that applied to extradition and mutual legal assistance and did not deal with any particular piece of legislation.
"Most countries one way or another had similar principles that deal with this although their laws may be different. With extradition, Tonga has an Extradition Act which says under what circumstances Tonga can arrange to get a person sent to Tonga or the other way around on how another country can get someone in Tonga arrested and sent back to that country to be tried for an offence – or if they have already been tried but escaped, how they can be sent back for punishment."
He said this Act differed from other countries but principles were similar and the workshop was to help work out how each country could make its own laws work in co-operation. Similarly, Tonga had a Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Act in regard to how we can get and receive assistance, he said.
Law
The theme for the upcoming 2013 PILON Meeting to be held on November 5-6, is 'Domesticating International Law: Challenges and Practices'
Senior law officials will discuss the challenges and best practices experienced in their jurisdictions when introducing domestic laws and the various international laws that their Governments decided to sign up to. International law covering areas of current concern to Pacific countries from climate change, human rights, international humanitarian law, anti-money laundering and terrorist financing will be discussed to look at the availability of human and financial resources, limited legal expertise among others, stated the Attorney General's office in Nuku'alofa.
Representatives would include Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Republic of Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu with observer members from regional and international organisations including the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, the Pacific Legal Information Institute among others.
The Pacific Prevention of Domestic Violence Program, Pacific Islands Chiefs of Police Secretariat, the Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering and the Oceania Customs Organisation Secretariat are among organisations invited to attend.
PILON is a network of senior public law officers from Pacific Island countries including Australia and New Zealand.
Tonga is hosting the meeting for the third time, since 1996 and 2004.