Many prisons in the Pacific face similar challenges and the Pacific Corrections Executive Roundtable (PCER) is a good opportunity to have a peer-to-peer exchange, and to share experiences with the aim to find solutions together for current and future problems.
This, according to International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) head of regional delegation, Vincent Ochilet.
Mr Ochilet expressed this during the opening of the second PCER at the Holiday Inn in Suva on Tuesday.
“We are here to sit down, talk and exchange,” he said.
“What I learnt in the previous PCER in Vanuata was that certain commissioners who had some specific problems did not know how to manage those specific problems.
“And we had other commissioners who had faced those problems and was able to help and exchange ideas and ICRC is only here to allow exchanges as such to take place.”
Mr Ochilet added different topics such as the impacts of COVID-19 and climate change in prison systems would be discussed.
Fiji Corrections Service Commissioner Francis Kean said they would be participating with an open mind during the roundtable.
“We’re very thankful to ICRC for putting this together for us,” he said.
“We’re here to listen to each other and see what some of the best practices are which we can piggyback on to implement in our own jurisdictions especially here in Fiji.”
This roundtable will see the participation of correction services from Solomon Islands, Nauru, Vanuatu, Kiribati, Samoa, Palau and New Zealand. The PCER will end on September 15.
