Vanuatu Review of National Land Legislation, Policy and ... - AusAID

the principal chief (Sec. 8(2)). A joint village land tribunal is made up of the“principal chief of each village”, two other chiefs or elders of each village, and asecretary appointed by the two principal chiefs (Sec. 9(2)). A similar formula isapplied to the membership of the bodies handling appeals – the single custom subarealand tribunal, joint custom sub-area land tribunal, single custom area landtribunal or joint custom area land tribunal.The membership of an island land tribunal also depends on whether the disputedland lies within a single custom area or more than one custom area. In the formercase, there are six members – the chairperson of the custom area council of chiefs,four other chiefs or elders from the custom area, and a secretary appointed by theisland council of chiefs (Sec. 23(3)). In the latter case, there are at least sevenmembers – the chairpersons of each custom area council of chiefs, four other chiefsor elders, and a secretary appointed by the island council of chiefs (Sec., 23(5)).The Act includes provision for the determination of boundaries between customareas, and the approval of lists of chiefs and elders (Secs. 35, 36). A chief or elderis disqualified from being a member of a tribunal in certain circumstances, includingthat he or she “has such business or financial interests, or social, religious, politicalor other beliefs or associations that will prevent him or her from applying customhonestly and adjudicating impartially” (Sec. 37). 24 Provision is also made for theprocedure of land tribunals, how decisions must be made and the orders a tribunalcan make, and allowances and costs for tribunal members (Part 6). The allowancesare set out in a schedule to the Act, and must be paid by the disputing parties beforethe tribunal sits (Sec. 32(2)).As for the law which applies to land disputes, a land tribunal must determine therights of the parties “according to custom”, but “the parties may at any time try toreach an amicable settlement of the land dispute, and the tribunal must encourageand facilitate any such attempts” (Sec. 28). Although the object of the Act is toprovide a system “based on custom to resolve disputes about customary land’ (Sec.1), a possible limitation on the jurisdiction of the tribunals is the wording of Sec. 7(1)providing for the giving of notices of a dispute. It refers only to disputes “about theownership or boundaries of customary land”. The power to handle disputes overinterests less than ownership must be implied from the other provisions of the Act.The Customary Land Tribunal Act came into operation on 10 December 2001, and itwas reviewed less than three years later by a 5-person review team funded byNZAID. 25 Among the team’s main findings were –a) the majority of landowners interviewed were supportive of the tribunalsystem, but still “lacked confidence and knowledge” in its implementation;b) a minority of chiefs, however, saw it as “undermining their authority andthe customary procedures”;24 The NZAID-funded review of the Act in 2004 (see below in the text) found that there was a“very low level of involvement by women in the tribunal process”.25 The team members were Geoff Mavromatis, Don Patterson, Josepha Kanawi, Joel Simoand Alicta Vuti.23