As regional governments attempt to raise US$100 million for a Trust Fund to finance the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell reiterated on Sunday that The Bahamas remains firm in its resolve to have the United Kingdom-based Privy Council remain its highest court.
Government officials attending the CARICOM Heads of Government Meeting in Montego Bay, Jamaica clearly outlined The Bahamas’ position on the CCJ during that summit.
It is reported that Trinidad and Tobago will make the highest contribution of US$31.6 million to the Trust Fund while Jamaica has pledged US$28.7 million and Barbados US$13.5 million followed by Guyana which has said it will give US$8.8 million to the effort.
Minister Mitchell said the attendance of representatives from the Attorney General’s Office at sessions on the court’s development will be “the closest” the country will come to joining the CCJ at this time.
“Our understanding is that the former prime minister, Mr. Ingraham, when he was prime minister, promised his fellow prime ministers at a Heads of Government meeting that The Bahamas would contribute to the cost of the court and would also be involved with its personnel going to the various meetings as the court has organized, so should The Bahamas decide at some point that it wanted to exercise that option, it would be available and the whole infrastructure of the court wouldn’t be strange to our people,” Minister Mitchell told The Bahama Journal.
“That would be the closest we would get to being involved in the Caribbean Court of Justice at the moment…when a Prime Minister speaks, he speaks on behalf of the country and so unless Cabinet formerly revokes it – even though no one is pressing us on the point – it is expected that we would participate as we said we would,” he added.
Regional governments asked the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) to raise US$100 million for the Trust Fund to finance the court. While the CDB is expected to raise the bulk of the money on the international capital markets, the court’s participating members will have individual loan agreements with the bank for their portion of the project.
“The idea of the Trust Fund to have US$100 million was to ensure that there was funding for the court including the payment for judges, supplies and equipment because criticism from bar associations from around the Caribbean was that they were concerned that once you move from the Privy Council that was paid for and staffed by the British that we would not have the monies to keep the court going, so that Trust Fund was established to meet those objectives,” Minister Mitchell said.
Ten Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community signed the agreement establishing the Caribbean Court of Justice on February 14th, 2001. They included leaders of Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, Guyana, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia and Suriname.
The CCJ, which will be located in Trinidad, will determine appeals in both criminal and civil cases from courts within jurisdictions which have signed onto the agreement which established the Caribbean Court of Justice.
“The Caribbean Court of Justice has two jurisdictions,” Minister Mitchell explained. “First there is, the appellate jurisdiction which deals with criminal and civil appeals from the domestic courts in each case. At the moment, there is no consensus in the country for going beyond where we are where the Privy Council is provided for in the constitution of the country as the ultimate court of appeal.
He said there are some people who are lobbying for that to be changed, but for the moment the consensus is that the Privy Council should remain the country’s highest court of appeal.
“The second jurisdiction is called an originating jurisdiction for disputes that arise as a result of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy arrangements and since we’re not part of those, we will not be involved in that aspect of the court either,” he said.
By Hadassah Hall, The Bahama Journal
