In April 2023, the Ministry of Justice and Community Services (MJCS) convened a Senior Leadership Group (SLG) meeting to reflect on this very issue. Agency heads collectively agreed that improved coordination of service delivery during crisis was necessary. An endorsement was made by the SLG to install a ready presence of justice sector agencies in the Ministry’s Gender and Protection Cluster (GPC), to enhance preparedness, response and recovery coordination across the chain of justice, and for agencies to identify and implement improved practices to support options during crisis.
This paper examines possible pathways to support these reforms by offering contextual grounding, including reference to relevant national and international frameworks, and the various challenges faced by the formal justice system in Vanuatu. It considers possible avenues for connection of the chain of justice with Vanuatu’s current humanitarian coordination architecture. The paper then highlights emerging good practice from other regional and global settings, which – although limited, and in different contextual operating systems – provide food for thought to inspire possible future actions in Vanuatu.
Recognising the dearth of global literature and documented good practice in bridging humanitarian and development planning in justice sector reform programming, Vanuatu Australia Policing and Justice Program is supporting MJCS agencies to focus on longer term policy and strategic reforms considering the climate crisis. Strategies for targeted communication, planning, and cooperation all play an important role in mitigating the human rights risks raised by emergency situations (even outside natural weather events), particularly for vulnerable members of the community – children, women and girls and people living with disabilities.
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