The Government is continuing its push to speedily implement phase one of the planned constitutional reform process despite critics who say not enough consultation or public education has been done.

In phase one of the process, provision is to be made to abolish the constitutional monarchy and establish the republic of Jamaica and propose amendments to the deeply entrenched provisions for which a referendum is required.

On Monday, co-chair of the Constitutional Reform Committee (CRC) Cabinet member Marlene Malahoo Forte announced that the committee has completed its recommendations for that phase and will shortly submit them to the Cabinet for deliberations.

“The Constitutional Reform Committee has now signed off on the list of recommendations. The document is being prepared for signature of committee members,” Malahoo-Forte, the minister of legal and constitutional affairs, told a Jamaicans For Justice human rights project launch at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston.

“I’m not at liberty at this time to go into the details of the recommendations, because there is a protocol and sequencing of the work that must take place, and when we are calling for the rule of law to prevail we have to curb our appetite for the leaks and wanting to hear ahead of time,” Malahoo Forte said.

“You can be assured that in the same way we have put online the confirmed minutes of the meetings, the report will go to Cabinet and it will be tabled in the Parliament and we will have an opportunity as a nation to discuss it in full,” she added.

The CRC had taken the decision to place the minutes of its meetings online after criticism that its deliberations were not being made public. The committee also started a series of public consultations, the first being held in Montego Bay, St James, at the end of April 2023.

On Monday, Malahoo Forte praised veteran attorney Dr Lloyd Barnett for his work with the committee.

“He often has said we have to address the concerns being raised. I do believe that Jamaica is blessed to still have with us someone who is a true expert in the field of constitutional law and who has dedicated his life to the work of reforming the supreme law of Jamaica,” she said to applause.

“There are many lessons to be learnt about how the work is done and it is my hope that we will demonstrate in a real way that will build the trust and consensus that is required to move the work forward,” the minister added.

Malahoo Forte also noted that one of the challenges of the reform process is the decision about Jamaica’s final court, describing it as a “big political risk”.

The governing Jamaica Labour Party has indicated that it wants to move to a republic while retaining the London-based Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as the country’s final appeal court, while the Opposition People’s National Party has indicated that although it supports the establishment of the republic of Jamaica it will not back the move unless the Caribbean Court of Justice is adopted as the final court of appeal at the same time.

While not indicating the recommendation of the CRC on this matter, Malahoo-Forte argued that in moving forward with a republican system of government, in an age where Jamaicans are calling for greater accountability from the executive, the best form of government would be one that embraces a balance of power built on checks and balances.

“We will hear and we will listen and we will consider your ideas and proposals for the kind of institution that will better guard the rights that have been guaranteed, not only in the vertical relationship between the State and the citizen, but also the horizontal relationship between citizen and citizen,” Malahoo-Forte said.