Most constitutions open with a short flourish. Papua New Guinea’s opens with several pages of substantive text, and people who skip it miss provisions that are argued in the National Court every year.
The Preamble to the Constitution has four working parts: the adoption clause, the National Goals and Directive Principles, the acknowledgment of Basic Rights, and the Basic Social Obligations. Each does a different legal job.
The adoption clause
The opening words — “WE, THE PEOPLE OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA” — record that the Constituent Assembly adopted the Constitution on 15 August 1975 and that it came into effect on Independence Day, 16 September 1975. That is not merely ceremonial. It establishes that the Constitution is autochthonous: home-grown, deriving its authority from the people of Papua New Guinea rather than from an Act of a departing colonial parliament.
It matters in argument. When a court is asked what a provision means, it is reading a document produced by a Constitutional Planning Committee that toured the country taking submissions — and section 24 expressly allows the Committee’s Final Report of 13 August 1974, and the debates on it, to be used as aids to interpretation.
The National Goals sit in the Preamble
The five National Goals and Directive Principles are set out in the Preamble, not in the body of the Constitution. They call for integral human development, equality and participation, national sovereignty and self-reliance, conservation of natural resources and the environment, and development through Papua New Guinean ways.
Their placement has led people to assume they are aspirational language. That is half right, and the half that is wrong matters.
25(1) The National Goals and Directive Principles are non-justiciable, except as provided in subsections (3) and (4).
25(2) Nevertheless it is the duty of all governmental bodies to apply and give effect to them as far as lies within their respective powers.
25(3) Where a law or a power can reasonably be understood, applied or enforced in a way that gives effect to the Goals — or at least does not derogate from them — without defeating the intention of Parliament or the Constitution, it must be read that way.
25(4) Subsection (1) does not apply to the Ombudsman Commission or other Leadership Code bodies, which must take the Goals fully into account.
So you cannot sue the State for failing to achieve integral human development. But if two readings of a statute are open, a court is directed to prefer the one that serves the Goals. That is a rule of construction with teeth, and it is used.
The acknowledgment of Basic Rights
The Preamble then acknowledges that, subject to restrictions imposed by law on non-citizens, all persons in the country — whatever their race, tribe, place of origin, political opinion, colour, creed or sex — are entitled to life, liberty, security of the person and the protection of the law; to take part in political activities; to freedom from inhuman treatment and forced labour; to freedom of conscience, expression, information, assembly and association; to freedom of employment and movement; and to protection for the privacy of their homes and property and from unjust deprivation of property.
That list is the plan for Part III, Division 3, which converts each item into an enforceable section. The Preamble also flags the crucial qualification: the protection is subject to limitations designed to ensure one person’s rights do not prejudice the rights of others or the legitimate public interest.
The Basic Social Obligations
Finally the Preamble declares nine Basic Social Obligations owed by all persons in the country — among them respecting the Constitution, protecting the national wealth and environment for future generations, contributing according to means to national revenue, and, for parents, supporting and educating their children whether born in or out of wedlock.
How the Preamble is actually used
- As a rule of construction. Section 25(3) requires the Goals-friendly reading where one is reasonably available.
- In leadership matters. Section 25(4) obliges the Ombudsman Commission and leadership tribunals to take the Goals fully into account.
- In filling gaps. Section 22 directs the National Court to supply missing machinery for constitutional rights and duties “in the light of the National Goals and Directive Principles”. This is one of the most under-used provisions in the Constitution.
- In developing the underlying law. Schedule 2 and the Underlying Law Act 2000 require the Goals to inform the growth of PNG’s indigenous jurisprudence.
If your argument depends only on the Preamble, it will fail. If your argument is about how an Act or a discretion should be read, the Preamble — through section 25(3) and section 22 — can be decisive.
Sources
- Constitution of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea — Preamble; ss 22, 24, 25
- Underlying Law Act 2000
Constitutional sections are amended. Before relying on anything here, read the current text: the Constitution on PacLII. If a decision matters to you, get advice — start with the Office of the Public Solicitor.