(Trinidad Express) Former Barbados prime minister Owen Arthur has said it is astonishing that this country has not made the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) its final appellate court.
Arthur delivered a lecture on “Caribbean Regionalism in the Context of Economic Challenges”, hosted by the Institute of International Relations of The University of the West Indies (UWI) at the St Augustine campus on Monday evening.
“The Caribbean Court of Justice may be the only court in human history which does not have a jurisdiction in the country in which it is based. It is astonishing if only because we didn’t force it on Trinidad…Trinidad asked to bring it here,” said Arthur.
He further pointed out that, for a long period, the head of the CCJ was a Trinidadian (Michael de la Bastide).
“Every civilisation in history has become a civilisation on the strength of its capacity to deliver justice on its own and what are we as a people if we have to look to others to deliver justice for us,” said Arthur.
The CCJ is the Caribbean regional judicial tribunal established on February 14, 2001, by the Agreement Establishing the Caribbean Court of Justice.
The Agreement came into force on July 23, 2003, and the CCJ was inaugurated on April 16, 2005 in Port of Spain, the seat of the court.
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, in April 2012, announced in Parliament it intended to abolish criminal appeals to the Privy Council in favour of the CCJ and would be tabling legislation to that effect.
This move followed a review of the situation conducted by the Government after a commitment given at the last Caricom Heads of Government conference in Suriname in July 2011.
The CCJ settles disputes between Caribbean Community (Caricom) member states, and also serves as the highest court of appeal on civil and criminal matters for the national courts of Barbados, Belize and Guyana.
Arthur, in his lecture, also raised concern over the Caribbean’s inability to have a fully-functional regional integration movement.
He said a study on the impact of free movement in the community revealed that just under 10,000 life skills certificates were issued to Caribbean nationals over a ten-year period, 1997 to 2008, which enabled them to find employment in the region.
He said, in 2008 alone, some 18,000 work permits were issued by Caribbean countries, of which 85 per cent were given to persons who are not nationals of the region.
Arthur said the truth is that in any given year, the Caribbean grants ten times more work permits to foreigners than to its own people and there must be reflection on how much progress could have been attained had the region been as generous to its own.
He also cited numerous reports which emphasise the Caribbean region’s lack of attraction in terms as a hub for business.
Arthur noted that the region’s average tariff of 11.6 per cent was higher than any other region and significantly higher than all other small economies.
