BCPC reviews first draft of constitution
Bougainville Constitutional Planning Commission (BCPC) began its first meeting for 2024 in Arawa last week, welcoming a copy of the first draft of the autochthonous constitution for an independent nation to be.
President of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville and Chairman of BCPC Hon. Ishmael Toroama opened the meeting and acknowledged the Commissioners for their tireless effort and commitment in gaging views of the public thus producing a draft copy.
Toroama acknowledged the completion of the first draft but also stated that there is progressive work being done to fine tune the document.
“Today, we see a copy of the first draft, but there is more to be done and I congratulate you all as leaders in your own right to have contributed and supported the course of this journey,” Toroama said. “Keep up the good work and we shall have our home-grown constitution.”
BCPC began its work in 2022 after 40 commissioners were sworn into office representing the ordinary citizens, women, youth, churches, and former combatants to consult with people to gage views on drafting an autochthonous or home-grown constitution for Bougainville.
This was per a BEC decision following an instruction from the President for all citizens of Bougainville, both old and young, able bodied and disabled to contribute their views to create a locally home-grown constitution.
BCPC under the leadership of Hon Ishmael Toroama as Chairperson, Vice President Hon Patrick Nisira as Alternate chairperson and Attorney General and Minister for Justice and Legal Services Hon Ezekiel Massatt as Deputy chairperson.
The commissioners had completed consultations within Bougainville and across Papua New Guinea (PNG) last year and the data collected from Bougainvilleans through written submissions and audio recordings were written out as drafting instructions.
These drafting instructions were then forwarded to Professor Anthony Reagan and Katy LeRoy, an Australian drafts woman who put together the instructions to create a first draft that was presented to the Commission yesterday, however, there is more work to be done to proofread, edit and finalize the document.
“This is a great day for us to acknowledge your commitment in producing this document, however, we have more work to be done to complete this draft and the outcome will depend on each and every one of you in this room,” Attorney General and Deputy Chairperson of BCPC Hon Ezekiel Massatt said.
He also acknowledged Professor Reagan and Katy LeRoy for putting together the draft and also thanked the BCPC Secretariat and support staff for their commitment in assisting the work of the commission.
The meeting in Arawa is the first for this year and the commissioners will be going through the first draft to ensure people’s views are fully captured. A final first draft of this Constitution is expected by April this year.
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