KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) – Government Senator Wensworth Skeffery says all 21 Senators should give a “yes” vote to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) Bills, as a mark of respect to the country’s National Heroes, who toiled to deliver justice to all.

Senator Skeffery who spoke in the ongoing debate on the CCJ Bills on October 23 in the Senate, said Jamaica’s National Heroes cleared a path for generations to enjoy freedom from oppression, and the Senators should ensure that Jamaicans have easy access to justice.

“They would want to know that we were bold, that we cared enough about our fellow men and women to give them a chance, an opportunity that they never had, that they perhaps thought would never ever come their way,” he reasoned.

The senator argued that he and his colleagues can be “heroes in our own right,” by not seeking to find excuses “to avoid doing the right thing…not content to allow our people to loiter for any time on the doorsteps of our former colonial masters.”

He said that in partnership with Caribbean people, all with similar historical underpinnings, “we should be willing to embark upon a new path, the correct path that we have carved out for ourselves.” 

The Bills before the Senate are: the Constitution (Amendment) (Caribbean Court of Justice) Act 2015; the Judicature (Appellate Jurisdiction) Act, 2015, and the Caribbean Court of Justice Act, 2015. They are seeking to delink Jamaica from the Judicial Committee of the United Kingdom (UK) Privy Council, and to become part of the CCJ in its Appellate Jurisdiction.

The Bills were passed earlier in the House of Representatives, and for them to be approved in the Senate, it requires at least one Opposition member to cast a positive vote. 

Senator Skeffery said the important mission to finalise the judiciary with a system fitting the image of independent nations requires a “resolve to take a new path.”

“(This means) moving with courage and strength given to us by our National Heroes, to take the visionary decision to give our people rights that they never had before experienced, and which are without doubt, their due.”