Belize Prime Minister Dean Barrow is urging the electorate of Antigua and Barbuda to vote YES for the Caribbean Court of Justice, CCJ.
Antigua and Barbuda is to hold a referendum to determine whether the CCJ should replace the London-based Privy Council as the country’s court of last resort.
Belize joined the regional court in 2010, and Barrow says it’s now time for Antigua to do the same.
“Let me say right at the start that I commend Antigua and Barbuda for, in fact, embarking on this process. I hope that at the end of the process that the people will approve Antigua and Barbuda’s accession to the appellate jurisdiction of the court,” he says.
A public education campaign on the CCJ will be launched in March ahead of the referendum for which no date has yet been given.
Barrow, who is also chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), says he has confidence in the Trinidad-based court.
“It is gifted with a level of talent and ability that makes us, and ought to make us, all in CARICOM extremely proud. You are talking about judges of the highest intellectual and judicial calibre. You’re talking about decisions having been given in complex matters that have showcased how well-positioned we in fact are to develop and advance our indigenous regional jurisprudence,” adds the prime minister, while noting as well that the notion of the court being open to political influence is nonsense.
“There’s the emperical record. Nobody can point to any instance in which there has been even the slightest suggestion that this is a court that would allow itself to be influenced,” he says when confronted by the popular notion that the CCJ is susceptible to interference from politicians.
So far only Belize, Barbados, Guyana and Dominica use the CCJ for final appeals. All 15 CARICOM members, however, recognize it as the place to settle matters related to the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, which formalised the group of nations. In relation to the treaty, the CCJ has original jurisdiction.
No comments:
Post a Comment