The 9^th International Conference of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland Systems of Protection of Human Rights in Europe and in Australia & Oceania. Warsaw, (April 24-25, 2017), Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce and the Polish Parliamentary Association. 

British political practice has played a key role in shaping the political and legal systems of the nations of the Commonwealth. Among the Commonwealth member states are Kiribati, which became the subject of interest in the British Empire in the second half of the 18th century. White colonizers at the end of the 19th century took over the protectorate over the islands, which in 1916 was converted into a British colony. In the mid-1970s, the colonies split into two parts. Independent status of Kiribati was proclaimed definitively in 1979. Considering the international aspect, it has been a sovereign member of the United Nations since 1999. On the other hand, on the basis of constitutional solutions, like many other states that were once part of the British colonial Empire, Kiribati adopted and implemented the foundations of the Westminster model of democracy. Through the evolution of the system, gradually moved away from the traditional pattern, giving way to other concepts of government and politics. However, there is no justification for Kiribati’s complete denial of the original assumptions of the Westminster model of governance for other constitutional solutions. It will be more convincing to conclude that Kiribati now has a mixed system of government: it has got the elements drawn on the British tradition as well as taken from the presidential system.

The paper reports the conference on Australia, organized by the Polish research association based in Cracow (Australia, New Zealand and Oceania Research Association, ANZORA). The 2020 edition was already the 12th conference entitled Australia in the Time of Crisis: Climactic, Cultural, Economic, and Political Solutions. This year, the co-organizing unit was the University of Łódź, as every year, ANZORA promotes Pacific Studies at different Polish universities. The hosting faculty was the Faculty of International and Political Studies, with its Chair of British Studies and the Commonwealth Countries, as well as the “Australian Studies” Scientific Association. The panelists came from numerous disciplines and eight academic institutions from Poland and three from abroad. In total, there were 21 presenters: young scholars, experienced academics, independent researchers as well as enthusiasts of the Australian continent. Besides the University of Bergen in Norway, foreign speakers represented the Université de Bourgogne in France and the Australian Embassy in Poland. Three diplomatic missions have taken the honorary patronage over the event. Those were the Australian Embassy, the Embassy of New Zealand, and the Polish Embassy in Australia. The supporting institutions were the University of Bergen, the Polish Geopolitical Society, and the Academy of European Careers Foundation.

Cooperation in the South Pacific region is unique due to the characteristics of its participants. Following the period of decolonization (1962-1980), countries in Oceania have radically changed. Achieving independence gave those nations international legal personality, yet complete independence from their former colonial powers. The following consequence was gaining an opportunity to draft, adopt and execute own laws in national and foreign policy. PICT (Pacific island countries and territories) have been expanding connections, political and trade ones, within the region since the 1960s when permanent migration of islanders and intra-regional transactions began. Migrations along with foreign aid are considered as the distinctive characteristics of the Pacific Ocean basin. Since the 1980s, the regional integration in Oceania, through establishing regional groupings and increasing the regional trade agreements number, took on pace and scope. The MIRAB synthetic measure (migration, remittances, aid, bureaucracy) has been used in analyzing the Oceania developing microeconomies. Last but not least, migration and foreign aid have been retaining the region from a deeper and more effective stage of regionalism.