Autonomous region of Bougainville releases first draft of new 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. [...] 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. [...] 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.
Read the full article here: Autonomous Bougainville Government