BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) –   Barbados Prime Minister, Freundel Stuart, has disagreed with the recent criticism by the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) of the delays in the island’s criminal justice system.

Speaking in Parliament on the Criminal Records (Rehabilitation of Offenders) (Amendment) Bill, 2017, Stuart said other Caribbean islands that are under the jurisdiction of the British Privy Council get only “one sentence” reprimands.

 “I do not myself get too overwhelmed by what the Caribbean Court of Justice says. We do not rejoice that there are delays in the system. There are delays and we have to deal with them.

“But I sometimes think that Barbados is being unnecessary slandered by some of the reports which I see,” Stuart added.

The CCJ in handing down a ruling last September where it said a Barbadian woman should be considered the spouse of her late partner as well as having the right to inherit from him on his death, expressed concern over what it said appears to be the practice in Barbados for matters to be stayed pending the outcome of interlocutory appeals without a formal court order.

The CCJ, the island’s final court, dissuaded the use of this practice except in circumstances where it was necessary after a full consideration of the relevant factors.

It noted that that the nine years that elapsed since the death of the spouse was inconsistent with the overriding objective to resolve disputes justly and expeditiously.

The CCJ ruled that such delay inevitably caused distress as no one had been appointed to administer Selby’s estate and as a result it sought to give a ruling as expeditiously as possible taking into consideration the matter having been filed in March this year.

The CCJ was established in 2001 to replace the London-based Privy Council as the region’s final court. Apart from Barbados, the other signatories to its Appellate jurisdiction are Belize, Dominica and Guyana.

The other Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries have signed on to the Original jurisdiction of the Court that also serves as an international tribunal interpreting the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas that governs the regional integration movement.

“All the others still go the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, and when you read decisions coming out of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council … evidence of horrible delays is uncovered in CARICOM countries that have not signed on to the CCJ,” Stuart said,

“The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council handles that issue of delays much less salaciously than seems to be the case when the issue is being handled here in the Caribbean,” Prime Minister Stuart said, noting that these issues are dealt with by the Privy Council “in one sentence, two at most, without any administering of rebuke or any holding up of a particular country to ridicule.

“But a lot more salaciously issues are handled in this region,” he said in reference to CCJ rebukes, acknowledging that the issue of delays in the criminal justice system “is a serious problem for all countries and we have to confront the problem because we all know that justice delayed is justice denied”.

Stuart said that Barbadians had a “vested interest” in a properly functioning judicial system, warning “it is not going to function efficiently if whenever there is evidence that there is delay . . . a country is held up to ridicule and the impression is given that the system is not working”.

But he promised legislators that Barbados would work towards dealing with the delays in the justice system even as he reiterated “that it is a regional problem and it just happens that those countries that have signed on to the CCJ come under the CCJ spotlight.

“Those that have not signed on to the CCJ come under the spotlight of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council that deals with these issues fundamentally differently from how they are handled in the region.

“The impression should not be given in any quarter that we hear about delays, or we know about them, and we’re doing nothing about them,” Prime Minister Stuart added.