Justice Desiree Bernard yesterday sat on the bench of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) for the last time, during the special sitting held in her honour where she was hailed as a champion for the rights of women and children and a regional trailblazer in the legal profession worthy of emulation.
The two-hour sitting, held at the Guyana Inter-national Conference Cen-tre at Liliendaal, brought down the curtains on Justice Bernard’s 33-year-long legal career and attracted regional and local practitioners, members of the judiciary, students of the Law Faculty of the University of Guyana and other well-wishers. Many persons were turned away as the seating arrangements were noticeably inadequate. With about twenty minutes to spare before the 10am start, the room that was set up for a three-day historic sitting of the court in Guyana was already filled.
Although she is retiring from the CCJ, to which she had been appointed since 2005, Justice Bernard will
