Push for CCJ follows Privy Council ruling

KINGSTON — Strong criticisms have come from a number of Caribbean countries for the latest ruling by the Privy Council in London against the death penalty accompanied in some cases with a reaffirmation to press ahead for the establishment of a Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).

On Monday, the London-based Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, which remains the final appellate court for all Caribbean Community countries other than Guyana, ruled as being unconstitutional the mandatory death sentence imposed against St Lucian Peter Hughes by the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal in April last year.

For Prime Minister P J Patterson, a staunch advocate of a regional appellate court, the Privy Council’s ruling was the latest example of British law lords’ determination to “unilaterally abolish capital punishment in the Caribbean”, and a further demonstration of their insensitivity to the nature of the problems faced in regional jurisdictions

So far as Barbados’ Attorney-General Mia Mottley is concerned, while the ruling has no immediate implications for Barbados, it underscores the urgency for the region to sever lingering colonial links such as access to the Privy Council and to move with haste toward the proposed CCJ.

She has lamented the fact that after 35 years of political independence, member states of the Caribbean Community continue to be dependent on rulings of the Privy Council and stressed it was time to delink such a connection in the interest of breaking dependence on outside jurisdiction in a very key area for a sovereign state.

However, while Attorneys-General in other jurisdictions, including St Lucia and St Kitts and Nevis, were also warning of the implications of the ruling that would now make it almost impossible to carry out death penalty decisions by regional courts, human rights activists and lawyers opposed to the death penalty have welcomed the Privy Council’s stand on the Peter Hughes case.

The four CARICOM states initially identified to be members of the CCJ are Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Guyana and Barbados.

But the CCJ is to have original jurisdiction for all member countries of CARICOM in relation to interpretation of intra-regional disputes arising from the new Community Treaty.

Meeting of Ombudsman

CASTRIES — There will be a twin focus on transparency and human rights at a three-day conference being organised by the Caribbean Ombudsman Association (CAROA) in Trinidad and Tobago from May 7-10.

This second regional conference for the association, launched in St Lucia in June 2000, will also address issues of accountability and good governance.

It will be preceded by a one-day training seminar for investigators and persons attached to Ombudsman offices in the Caribbean and sharing of experiences of the functioning of this institution to which increasing number of citizens are turning to seek redress for grievances.

Subjects to be covered during the three-day conference, for which the principal of the University of the West Indies (St Augustine Campus), Dr Bhoe Tiwari, will deliver the keynote address, will include: “The Institution of Ombudsman, an effective accountability mechanism”, and “The relationship between poverty, good governance and democracy in the Caribbean”.

‘Misery’ in T&T schools

PORT-OF-SPAIN — Emergence of a “pin gang” of students extorting money from fellow students and the latest intimidation and verbal assault against a teacher have left the Trinidad and Tobago Teachers Association (TTUTA) complaining against the “misery” being confronted in the nation’s schools and for prompt remedial actions.

The criminal investigation department of the local police force are currently probing a report of senior secondary school students allegedly extorting money from schoolmates who they bully and pierce with pins, threatening to inflict more money if they fail to pay up.

Five of such suspected students, aged 12 to 14, have been questioned by the police in the presence of their parents, according to a report in yesterday’s Express.

The “pin gang”, as it is known, attacked students at male toilet facilities and collected TT$20 in their acts of terrorising their weaker colleagues.

In the meanwhile, at the Arima Senior Comprehensive School, a female teacher had to resort to her cellular phone to summon police help after being surrounded in her classroom by hostile students who verbally abused her.

The TTUTA was prompted to give notice of “appropriate action” if by today there is no firm initiative by the Ministry of Education to correct the recurring problems of threats to teachers and indiscipline among students.

A system of what TTUTA calls “democratic management”, involving teachers, students and principal at this particular school has been proposed by the association.