Tonga will host the 17th Pacific Judiciary Conference at the new Fa'onelua Convention Centre on November 7-9, the first time the conference has been held here.

Chief Justice Anthony Ford said today, this is a major conference for Tonga, which will attract 43 judges from 21 countries and states including 16 Chief Justices.

The judges are coming from as far away as California, and Hawai'i in the United States, Tahiti, East Timor and most other Pacific nations including New Zealand and Australia.

Chief Justice Ford said the conference itself will be closed and judges will discuss a number of confidential matters, "Session one, for example, is titled Judiciary Independence in the Pacific, which is a very important topic.

"Every judge has to be concerned with what is happening with the Judiciary in Fiji where they had a Chief Justice who was suspended and it just seems to be going on in limbo for so long and it is coming up to one year now," he said.

He also clarified that judicial independence is a particularly important topic, "and you don't have to look very far to see that it is becoming an increasing pressure, like what happened in Fiji. Whether this conference will be able to help resolve those matters, I don't know, but it is certainly something we just can't push aside but we have to face up to it and discuss it," he added.

Fiji

Mr Justice Ford who attended a Judicial Conference for Asian and Pacific Chief Justices earlier in June in Hong Kong said the judges discussed Pakistan and Fiji but they were unable to reach any consensus as to what they could do.

"The same situation may happen in this conference but I hope we can come up with some constructive way in which we can help so this will be an important topic at the conference to consider," he said.

Australian Chief Justice

The Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Australia will make the keynote address on Wednesday before the first paper is presented by a retired Chief Justice from New Zealand Sir Thomas, on "Interference with Judiciary Independence in the Pacific" followed by the Chief Justice of Vanuatu who will speak on the topic of how judges can strengthen judicial independence.

The conference will also be discussing case management and mediation, ways of reducing the back-log in courts and will end up with a vision for the future for Pacific Judiciaries in a panel discussion to be chaired by the Chief Judge of the High Court of New Zealand, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Queensland and the Chief Judge of the US Court of Appeal in California.

"I am delighted we have got a wide representation, particularly from the northern Pacific countries like the States, and to get them together like this they can discuss confidentially matters important to them such as judicial independence and what is happening in some parts of the world," he said.

Top reformer

Chief Justice Ford will also be presenting a paper on Case Management and Computer Management in the Pacific.

"I am very pleased to note that the World Bank has selected Tonga's Supreme Court as the number one reformer of the whole world over the last year.

"What we have achieved here over the last 12 months in terms of case management is something really significant in terms of judiciary in the Pacific and they are going to look to us as a model so we will help in all we can, but I must stress that in return we are very grateful to the Federal Court of Australia for their assistance," he said.

HM King George V will officially open the conference on Wednesday November 7 at 10:00 am at Fa'onelua, Nuku'alofa.