Un Symposium Inclusive peace : Power Sharing in Ethnically divided Societies (le partage du pouvoir dans les sociétés divisées ethniquement) s’est tenu à Tokyo et Karuizawa du 4 au 8 juin 2025. L’université était représentée par le Pr Mathias Chauchat, PI (Principal Investigator) du projet, et Anthony Tutugoro, post doctorant affecté au projet. Ce colloque a lieu en anglais.

Context and Objective

New Caledonia, a French overseas territory in the Pacific, has experienced long-standing tensions between the indigenous Kanak population and the settler communities, primarily of European descent. This socio-political divide has centered around issues of autonomy, identity, and colonial legacy.

As part of the INCLUSIVEPEACE program, the research focused on exploring how power-sharing arrangements have been proposed, received, and adapted in this unique context. The goal was to assess the adoptability and adaptability of peace settlements through both elite and citizen-level perspectives.

The 1998 Nouméa Accord serves as a central example of a power-sharing agreement aimed at promoting stability and coexistence. It granted increasing autonomy to New Caledonia and laid out a gradual path toward a possible future independence. This framework was designed to manage ethnic tensions through shared governance. The agreement, though negotiated among political elites, has struggled to include broader segments of society. Many citizens—particularly younger generations—feel disconnected from the process and uncertain about its outcomes. The three referendums held between 2018 and 2021 revealed deep societal divisions and limited consensus on the political future. While the Nouméa Accord created a temporary balance, its mechanisms for renegotiation are limited and do not fully accommodate evolving social and political demands. There is little institutional space for ordinary citizens to voice concerns or participate meaningfully in shaping future arrangements.

The case of New Caledonia illustrates both the potential and the limitations of elite-driven power-sharing agreements. It highlights the importance of inclusive mechanisms that allow adaptation over time and active citizen engagement.

By drawing from successful models in other contexts—such as Bosnia-Herzegovina, Northern Ireland or South Africa—there is an opportunity to propose win-win solutions that can be adapted and replicated across similar conflict-prone, multi-ethnic societies.

Professors Allison McCulloch of Brandon University, Canada, and Joanne McEvoy of the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK, have sought to summarize the core characteristics of power-sharing agreements in divided societies in their introductory piece « Power-Sharing Peace Settlements: Hard to Love, Difficult to Change. » These fundamental traits are largely reflected in the case of New Caledonia.

Anthony Tutugoro (Postdoctoral researcher in Political Science and teaching assistant, LARJE, University of New Caledonia): How do actors perceive power-sharing and the inclusion of citizens in the decision-making process in New Caledonia?

Since the pro-independence movement, and more broadly the Kanak people, has chosen not to participate peacefully in the third referendum scheduled under the Nouméa Accord, the future of New Caledonia has been closely watched by observers of this sui generis French collectivity. Since the insurrection in May 2024 against the constitutional law amending the electoral body for the provincial elections, the international community has been wondering about the potential for resolving the long-standing colonial dispute in this South Pacific archipelago.

The Inclusive Peace project, launched in 2023, is attempting to take a new approach to this issue. The aim of this international research program, which brings together universities from England, Canada, Japan and New Caledonia, is to compare various states or collectivities categorised as deeply divided societies which, through their own histories of conflict, have adopted power-sharing at an institutional level.

In the context of this research, we are therefore interested in power sharing for a complex people as it operates in New Caledonia and in its possible evolution by using mixed methods. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups are currently being conducted with institutional leaders, political and customary leaders, and members of associations campaigning for greater civic inclusion at the political level. The aim of these interviews is to gain a better understanding of the logic and practice of power-sharing in the archipelago since the signing of the last political peace agreements, Matignon-Oudinot (1988) and Nouméa (1998). Besides this body of interviews, a quantitative survey will be carried out in early 2025 on a representative sample of the New Caledonian population. It will aim to measure the range of acceptable compromises that the various groups involved would be prepared to concede in the context of decolonisation and of an extension of the archipelago’s power-sharing arrangements.

The papers will first provide an up-to-date overview of the socio-political situation in New Caledonia. Secondly, they will present the results obtained through the collection of empirical data on the ground.

Professor Mathias Chauchat presented the New Caledonian case through the lens of the French State’s proposed Sovereignty Pact within a union with France, highlighting its underlying political negotiation challenges and power-sharing implications. The oral version of his presentation can be found here:

Contribution Inclusive peace Power-Sharing Japan ORALfinal public