Bougainville in 2024

Please note that this is a hybrid event. For online attendance please sign up to obtain the Zoom link. Access link will be delivered via email upon registration.

In the morning of 6th September, the day following the two day State of the Pacific Conference (Wednesday 4th and Thursday 5th September), the ANU’s Department of Pacific Affairs is organising a workshop on aspects of the current situation in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville.

At present, the following presentations are proposed:

• - Social and other Impacts (including law and order) of the 9 year Bougainville conflict:  Dennis Kuiai (Deputy Secretary Law and Justice Department, Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG)).

• - The Panguna legacy process against Rio Tinto, and the separate class actions against Rio and BCL:  Theonila Roka Matbob, (elected member for Ioro Constituency (covering the Panguna area), ABG Minister for Community Government, and Lead Complainant in the ‘legacy’ process initiated by the Melbourne Human Rights Law Centre).

• - The PACSIA Dialogue process in Bougainville, 2017-2024, and what it tells us about the views of Bougainvilleans over a 7 year period: James Tanis (former ABG President, now member of the Bougainville Independence Mission Advisory Team),  and Serge Loode (Chair of the Board, PACSIA).

• - The Bougainville conflict and peace process in a comparative ‘international context’: John Braithwaite (Professor Emeritus, ANU, and leader since 2004 of the 25 year ‘Peacebuilding Compared Project’ which examines hundreds of variables in – so far –over 70 post-WWII conflicts, see https://johnbraithwaite.com/peacebuilding/).

• - The independence constitution-making process, the post-referendum decision-making process, and the future: Anthony Regan, (Professor of Constitutional Law, Department of Pacific Affairs, adviser to the ABG).

Image: Bougainville residents queue to vote at a polling station during the independence referendum in Buka, 23 November 2019 (Ness Kerton/AFP via Getty Images)