CJ praises women judges

CHIEF Justice Sir Salamo Injia says two new women judges will hopefully help increase non-citizen judges towards 25 per cent to better reflect the country’s transnational judiciary system.
He said the judiciary was looking at having 15 women judges in the next five years.
The Supreme and the National courts welcomed Judges Royale Thompson and Teresa Berrigan in a ceremony in Port Moresby last week.
“I thank the two judges for accepting this appointment to be fulltime judges in the High courts of this country,” Sir Salamo said.
He said eight other non-citizen judges had been appointed over the past nine years.
Sir Salamo said the two new judges had been part of PNG’s judiciary system for a number of years and were familiar with the system.
“They have the experience of serving on the bar and have the burning desire to serve the people of this country on legal service,” Sir Salamo said.
Justice Thompson was born in Lae in 1954. She had her primary education in Lae and Bulolo before completing her formal education in England and Australia.
She was admitted as a lawyer in the National Court and Supreme Court here in 1979, and also to the High Court of Australia, the
Australian Capital Territory and the states of New South Wales and Queensland.
Justice Berrigan is a lawyer with more than 20 years post-qualification experience, including 15 years as a prosecutor in Australia, PNG and the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the United Nations Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals in Tanzania.