OPPOSITION spokesperson Dr Angela Brown Burke has challenged the Andrew Holness Administration to present the country with a “principled action-oriented leadership in regional and foreign affairs”.

Making her contribution to the 2025/26 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, Brown Burke charged that under the present Administration there has been an absence of the quality of leadership in regional and foreign affairs that Jamaica was accustomed to when the People’s National Party formed the Government.

“In recent times we have witnessed silence, a deterioration in advocacy and action from our beloved island Jamaica, on critical matters facing the region and the most vulnerable in the world,” said Brown Burke in her prepared text.

“Jamaica has remained silent even on matters of customary international principles such as ‘the right to self-determination,’ which historically has been reflected in our support of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly Resolution 1514,” added Brown Burke who is the Opposition spokesperson on foreign and regional affairs.

The UN General Assembly Resolution 1514 was adopted in 1960 and characterises foreign rule as a violation of human rights. It affirmed the right to self-determination, and called for an end to colonial rule.

“It cannot be that the only time the entire nation gets a front row seat to international action is when our representatives are campaigning to lead international groupings such as ministerial committees or to head the Commonwealth [of Nations].

“In examining some of the main attitudes and actions which have characterised our Jamaican foreign policy over the last nine years against the best practices of our better years, it is clear that Jamaica deserves better,” added Brown Burke.

She told the House that there is the need for a clear foreign policy position, known to all Jamaicans, on matters affecting the nation, the region, and the global landscape. She has also called for “a pathway towards actions that are clearly in the best interest of our people, locally and in the Diaspora”.

Brown Burke added, “That is the action-oriented leadership in foreign and regional affairs that Jamaicans deserve. The PNP is committed to putting Jamaica first every time and that is what you can also expect when we are once again elected as Government.”

The Opposition spokesperson also urged the Administration to re-examine and reassess Jamaica’s international obligations, especially those that no longer serve the development of the country.

“It is our duty to undertake a rigorous and ongoing analysis of the relationship between international law and our domestic legal system. Because the interrogation and integration of international arrangements — treaty-based or otherwise — is not just a matter of procedure, it is a matter of sovereignty, of justice, and of the kind of nation we are building,” said Brown Burke.

She argued that not even the framers of Jamaica’s constitution imagined that 63 years after independence, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council would remain Jamaica’s final court of appeal.

“That is precisely why they did not entrench that right in the constitution,” said Brown Burke.

“We speak the language of decolonisation, but we maintain the King’s Court as the highest authority in our justice system. This contradiction is no longer defensible. It places real justice out of the reach of everyday Jamaicans. And worse — it undermines our very identity as a free and independent people and makes a mockery of our efforts at becoming, in every sense, fully free.

“So let us have the conversation, boldly, openly and honestly. Let us talk about adopting the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) as our final appellate court; our court, built by us, for us. These are not merely legal issues. They are national questions demanding full action in our national interest. They go to the heart of who we are, and who we want to become,” said Brown Burke.