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Contact:
Claudia Monlouis
Wednesday, March 16, 2005 - Prime Minister, Hon. Dr. Kenny D. Anthony has
challenged the local justice system to work towards regaining the trust of the
citizenry, particularly in light of the imminent establishment of the Caribbean
Court of Justice (CCJ).
While raising several strong arguments pointing to why the CARICOM Community
should relinquish ties with the British Privy Council, Dr. Anthony also noted
that the local justice system could do much to rebuild and repair public
confidence in the process.
“Where for example, some citizens have come to distrust local justice, we must
seek ways to improve their circumstances by improving access to adequate
representation, by improving accountability and transparency in the justice
system. We must seek to demystify the systems of justice administration so that
citizens feel empowered and not disenfranchised,” The Prime Minister said.
Dr. Anthony, who was at the time addressing the recently-held Annual Awards
Ceremony of the CLICO Group of Companies, said the Privy Council had remained
distant and inaccessible to the vast majority of ordinary citizens of the
region, and that the Council also bore both a philosophical and contextual
disconnect with the region.
Says he: “It is therefore time to establish a more popular, more accessible and
relevant process. In this context we may as well contemplate the consequences of
failure of PJ Patterson, when he posited that the next generations will never
forgive us. They will look at a united Europe, a cooperative Europe, a Latin
America attempting to set up free trade areas and begin to wonder what went
wrong in the Caribbean.”
The C.C.J is to be the final Court of Appeal and the highest body of arbitration
on trade matters for the Caribbean Community.
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