A national workshop that focused on a proposal for the drafting of a treaty, covering amongst other issues extradition arrangements within the Melanesian Spearhead Group of countries, ended in Suva yesterday.
Those that participated included representatives from the Fiji Police Force, the Department of Immigration, the Social Welfare department, Foreign Affairs and Legal Aid.
Stakeholders discussed about the ways they could contribute to a proposed agreement on extradition with tentative resolutions formulated and to be later submitted at a regional workshop.
Other issues to be covered by the proposed treaty include child maintenance and custody, reciprocal enforcement of foreign judgments and mutual legal assistance.
Working group chairman and Foreign Affairs (Political & Treaties) deputy secretary Mr Sila Balawa said the workshop essentially covered discussions on issues and hurdles faced by government agencies in areas of extradition, child maintenance, custody and reciprocal enforcement of foreign judgments.
Similar workshops are simultaneously being held in other MSG countries.
“The purpose of the workshop is also to see the issues to be identified and remedial actions will be proposed in order to implement the legal agreement,” Mr Balawa said.
“We will also have a bigger workshop to get the views of more stakeholders before the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) countries sign.”
The regional meet to hear submissions from the various countries on the issues discussed will be held at Port Vila, Vanuatu in July.
This workshop is a follow-up to the communiqué agreed to at the MSG Leaders Summit that was held at the Vale ni Bose in Nasese earlier this year.
The workshop was funded by Luxembourg, a country that participated at the recent MSG as an observer.
“We would like to thank Luxembourg for funding this national workshop and also the regional workshop that will be held at Port Vila in July,” Mr Balawa said.