Professor Stephen Vasciannie, a consultant in the Attorney-General’s office at the Ministry of Justice, has said that the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) would serve to broaden the rights of the average Jamaican.

According to Vasciannie, persons wishing to appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London, Jamaica’s court of last resort, on matters concerning fundamental rights and freedoms, must now seek leave or “special leave” to do so. It was not an automatic right, he pointed out.

However, with the establishment of the CCJ, no special leave would be necessary, Vasciannie told a JIS ‘Think Tank’ last week.

“Such a plea will be a matter of right,” he stressed, adding that the CCJ would make it an automatic right and that this was an important development.

“The agreement establishing the Caribbean Court of Justice and the legislation to be put into effect… give everyone the right to appeal to the CCJ on matters falling under fundamental rights and freedom in the Constitution,” he said.

The CCJ is to have original jurisdiction in interpreting the treaty under which the Caribbean Community (Caricom) will, next year, create a single market and economy. But it is in its role as a court of final appeal, replacing the Privy Council, that the CCJ has run into greatest opposition, particularly in Jamaica, where opponents have raised objections ranging from the quality of jurisprudence in the Caribbean, to the inadequacies of the justice system in the region, to fear that the court will be under-funded and the possibility of political interference.

But regional governments have made significant concessions on some of the concerns, including establishing a Regional Judicial Services Commission that will select judges for the court.

They have also set up a trust fund that has been mandated to raise US$100 million for the financing of the court.

In his address to the JIS Think Tank, Vasciannie also spoke on human rights, pointing out that the Jamaican Government intended to amend the Constitution, thereby widening the rights to be enjoyed by Jamaicans.

He explained that a Charter of Rights Bill would replace the current chapter in the Jamaican Constitution on Fundamental Rights and Freedoms. The Charter, he said, would retain all the rights that are currently preserved, but would add a number of new principles.

“One of these new principles is that one cannot discriminate on the grounds of gender,” he said.

“Under the current Constitution, there are rules to the effect that you cannot discriminate on grounds of political opinion, place of origin, race, but it does not say anything about gender, which I think may be a reflection of the time the Constitution came into being,” Vasciannie said. “But the amendment in the Charter of Rights Bill would make sure that gender discrimination is unconstitutional.”