Rev. Utufua Naseri
Representatives of the Diplomatic Corp,
Constitutional Officers and Chief Executive Officers,
Representatives of civil societies and NGOs,
Ladies and Gentlemen.
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It is my great pleasure to welcome you all this morning to witness
the official launch of the Law and Justice Sector Plan 2020-21/ 2024-
25.
Samoa is steadfast to ensuring that our people achieved improved
quality of life for all, through sustainable development that balances
economic prosperity, social inclusion and environmental resilience.
This has been reiterated through the Sustainable Development Goals
nationally, regionally and across international forum. Overall, Samoa
is generally considered a peaceful, stable and secure society unlike
other societies within our own region. However, violent crimes and
assaults are rising and presenting at alarming levels especially in
respect to the safety and security of our society and its domestic
situations., The Sector takes this increasing prevalence seriously and
with the development of the new Samoa Law and Justice Sector Plan
You now have a revised collective strategic instrument and roadmap
to guide the work of our Sector, thus, holding this critical sector and
leaders accountable in the fight to improve community safety,
accessibility to justice systems and border security and national
safeguard.
The Sector is committed to its achievement of SDG 5 “To achieve
gender equality and empower all women & girls and SDG16 “Peace,
Justice and strong institutions through our Vision for this Sector Plan
“Safe, secure, fair, just and inclusive Samoa.”. The Plan is aligned
with National, Regional and Global Plans.
The 3 main outcomes for the Plan are:
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1. Community Safety and community wellbeing as a result of a
Law and Justice Sector that prioritises Crime Prevention and
Crime Management
2. Accessibility to the Justice System improved and in
harmonization with governance and integrity of the Customary
and Formal justice systems in place
3. Improved border security and national safeguards as a result of
the Law and Justice Sector that prioritises good governance
principles and respect for the rule of law that enables a secure
and resilient Samoa.
There are two new features of this plan; First is the addition of the 3 rd
outcome of border security and national safeguard to the mandate of
the Law and Justice Sector. With this new outcome brings the
inclusion of the Ministry of Prime Minister and Cabinet as a strong
addition to the Sector’s Steering Committee. Welcome on board. The
other is Our mandate to include protection of our citizens especially
the vulnerable women and children from violence and abuse and
through a partnership with Spotlight Initiative reflects a strong
commitment to ending violence against women and girls, gender-
based violence and domestic violence for the next 5 years
The Law and Justice Sector Steering Committee must commit to
oversee the implementation and administration of the Plan. The
Government acknowledges the efforts of the Steering Committee
comprises of representatives of both Government and non-
government agencies. The Government agencies include Government
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Ministries which are considered core players in the Law & Justice
Sector, namely the Attorney General’s Office, the Ministry of Justice
and Courts Administration, the Ministry of Police and Prisons, the
Office of the Ombudsman, the Ministry of Women, Community and
Social Development, Samoa Law Reform Commission & new to the
Sector is the Ministry of the Prime Minister and Members of Cabinet.
Given the cross cutting nature of the Law and Justice Sector, the
Ministry of Finance and the Public Service Commission play an active
role for the Sector. The non-government agencies include the Samoa
Law Society, SUNGO, representative of matai, representative of
women and the National Council of Churches.
The Law and Justice Sector Plan hopes to achieve some of the
activities such as:
1. Updating our National Crime Prevention Strategy
2. Developing a National Alcohol & Drug Strategy
3. Established a dedicated youth facility with appropriate
rehabilitation programmes
4. Drafting a Cybercrime Legislation
5. Developed a shared crime management system/database
6. Reviewing the Existing Family Laws of Samoa in order to make
recommendations on an appropriate legal framework on family
laws that best serves the needs of Samoa.
7. Establishment of the Community Law Centre
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8. For Law and Justice Sector to have in place a Preparedness
Response Plan for National Border Security issues
Even though the Plan is being officially launched today, some of its
activities had already started such as work towards drafting a
Cybercrime Legislation, National Crime Prevention Strategy as well
as work done on Reviewing the Existing Family Laws of Samoa in
order to make recommendations on an appropriate legal framework
on family laws that best serves the needs of Samoa. The challenge
now is for the Sector to translate its goals and objectives into the
above benefits in order for the Plan to be a success. The Sector is also
focussing on the importance of building the capacity of the Law &
Justice Coordination Unit who will be dealing with the monitoring
and evaluation and work with the leading agencies to make sure that
the activities for this Plan will be implemented as planned.
Malo galue, but there’s a lot of work to be done still to build a safe
and secured Samoa to improve quality of life for our future
generations. Your contribution through a collective and
programmatic approach with strong governance and coordinated
monitoring and evaluation mechanism will no doubt support
delivering of your vision and mission as lay out in this Plan. Don’t
forget this Sector Plan is a puzzle piece of a big picture and long term
plan connecting Law and Justice across other government sectors,
agencies and stakeholders through SDGs and Samoa 2040 plans (to
name a few) to achieve our governments wider purpose of a Fair,
Just and Inclusive Samoa.
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I take this opportunity to express the Government of Samoa’s
gratitude to our partners for the financial assistance provided. I
acknowledge the European Union and United Nations and United
Nations Spotlight Initiative for the technical assistance facilitated
through the United Nations Development Program as well as
financial support received under the UNDP Trac 1 Fund. This
enabled the Sector to review its work of the last 5 years and to
design draft this Plan and also the funding for a translator to
translate the Plan to the Samoan language. I acknowledge our local
consultants for putting this Plan together as well as translating it into
our very own language for better understanding when
implementing.
I also thank the Sector ministries, Madam chair and members of the
Steering Committee for leading the work of the Sector as well as the
Law and Justice Technical Working Group for all the effort in putting
together the Law and Justice Sector Plan.
Outou mama na. It is now my pleasure to officially present and
launch the Law and Justice Sector Plan, 2020/21-2024/25
Soifua