The unrealised potential of local institutions in Papua New Guinea: adopting a bottom-up approach to governance, rule of law, and peace and development
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
According to the principles of the bottom-up approach to peace and development, true and sustainable development and social harmony can only emerge by individuals taking constructive actions towards peaceful individual and communal governance – something which each individual and each community must realise within themselves and on their own terms. Well-functioning local-level institutions can support this process. In the Papua New Guinean context, however, too little attention has been given to the most fundamental local institutions – the local-level government and the village court – which for the vast majority of people constitute the first point of contact with any formal political and legal system. This paper firstly reviews the operation, institutional framework and potential cooperation of these two local institutions, with a particular emphasis on those institutional aspects by which bottom-up development can take place and be strengthened and enhanced, leading ideally to empowered communities and increasing peace and prosperity. Secondly, it shows that the potential of both the local-level government and the village court is currently greatly unrealised. Finally, the paper aims to inspire, promote and demonstrate ways in which this potential can be realised, using two case studies and a discussion. It is believed that knowledge, awareness and realisation of such potential will promote a greater sense of individual, communal and social governance, and commitment to the rule of law, emerging from the bottom up and fostering social harmony.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who submit articles to this journal from 31st March 2014 for publication, agree to the following terms:
a) Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share and adapt the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
b) Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
c) Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Open Access Citation Advantage Service). Where authors include such a work in an institutional repository or on their website (ie. a copy of a work which has been published in a UTS ePRESS journal, or a pre-print or post-print version of that work), we request that they include a statement that acknowledges the UTS ePRESS publication including the name of the journal, the volume number and a web-link to the journal item.
d) Authors should be aware that the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) License permits readers to share (copy and redistribute the work in any medium or format) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the work) for any purpose, even commercially, provided they also give appropriate credit to the work, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. They may do these things in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests you or your publisher endorses their use.
For Issue 13/14, and all issues before, the following copyright applied:
Authors submitting a paper to UTS ePRESS publications agree to assign a limited license to UTS ePRESS if and when the manuscript is accepted for publication. This license allows UTS ePRESS to publish a manuscript in a given issue. Articles published by UTS ePRESS are protected by copyright which is retained by the authors who assert their moral rights. Authors control translation and reproduction rights to their works published by UTS ePRESS. UTS ePRESS publications are copyright and all rights are reserved worldwide. Downloads of specific portions of them are permitted for personal use only, not for commercial use or resale. Permissions to reprint or use any materials should be directed to UTS ePRESS via the journal's main editor, Alison Brown, journal@clgf.org.uk