CLA News / CLA President’s historic visit to Papua New Guinea
As we go to press on 8th February 2024, CLA President Peter D. Maynard KC is coming towards the end of his visit to Papua New Guinea, where he has been since 3rd February. The visit is a historic first to PNG by a CLA President.
Hosted by the Chief Justice of PNG, Sir Gibuma Gibbs Salika, GCL KBE CSM OBE, Justice John Carey, the PNG Centre for Judicial Excellence and David Denniston the CLA Council Member for PNG, Peter D. Maynard KC gave the guest address at the opening of the PNG legal year, met with the Chief Justice, Hubert Namani the President of the PNG Law Society, the Ombudsman Commission, Professor Sam Kaipu the Dean of the PNG Law School, Angeline Paranda the Director of the Legal Training Institute and the PNG Woman’s Lawyers Association.
Peter D. Maynard KC has given a lot to PNG and his visit will have a lasting impact. He gave a constitutional and rule of law lecture to 200 University of PNG law students and separately to 150 Legal Training Institute students. Peter also found time to visit LLLS Lawyers as part of his message to encourage law firms to become CLA institutional members. Peter’s visit has been very well received and attracted considerable media attention with TV interviews to be broadcast next week.
The theme of the President’s engagements was that only the application of the rule of law through all organs of government could create a fair and just society and a strong economy, and its absence generally impacted the most vulnerable first; the recent unrest and looting in PNG is reason to look at the health of the rule of law. Like was shown by the Chief Justice in his remarks at the opening of the legal year, Dr. Maynard reminded lawyers that upholding the rule of law required courage and that in their position as “social engineers” they had the opportunity to protect it and a responsibility to protect the independence of lawyers and the judiciary and also equal access to justice for all.
The President completes his PNG trip with a visit to Loloata Resort before travelling to Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and then onto Fiji and the Solomon Islands before attending the CLA and Sabah Law Society Borneo Rainforest Law Conference from 25th-28th February in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malayasia.
Peter D. Maynard’s visit to the South Pacific will resume when he attends CHOGM in Samoa in October 2024, where he hopes to also welcome new CLA South Pacific country members Nauru, Tuvalu and the Pitcairn Islands and also meet with Tonga, Kiribati, Vanuata, Cook Islands, Niue, and Tokulu.
Read more on the visit with commentary and articles from the PNG Post Courier
David Denniston
CLA Council member for PNG
