Latest update November 30th, 2024 12:03 AM
Sep 05, 2010 News
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (GNC) — Although there is no official word from the Trinidad and Tobago government, newspaper reports from the twin island republic have prompted the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to seek clarification about the future of the Port of Spain headquartered regional court, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).
Belize Prime Minister, Dean Barrow, who is the CARICOM leader “with the most direct responsibility for the Court” held talks with the president of the Court, Sir Michael de la Bastide, amidst concerns over threats to the court’s existence.
Barrow told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC), “I think that the new government there could be contemplating the possibility of asking the Community to take the court elsewhere. Now, I want to stress, as far as I understand this is just a matter of a media report, I don’t know that any official position has been taken by the new government of Trinidad and Tobago, but the press report was worrying for President de la Bastide to discuss the matter with me.”
The prime minister reiterated that, while the Kamla Persad-Bissessar administration has not made a public statement regarding the location of the CCJ, due to the press report, “we clearly recognise that perhaps credence is due to the press report but we cannot elevate it to the status of official Trinidad and Tobago government policy.”
Barrow, who is also a senior counsel, and among the first batch of West Indian trained lawyers, said he welcomed the statement issued by five eminent persons, adding, “It is just as well that Caribbean personalities of influence are weighing in on the matter so that perhaps it is a preemptive strike.”
The Trinidad Express newspaper carried an article stating that Trinidad and Tobago has spend enormous sums of money on the CCJ, but the five distinguished Caribbean nationals who have the highest regional award — the Order of Caribbean Community (OCC) – namely, former Jamaican prime minister, PJ Patterson; former CARICOM secretary general, Alister Mc Intyre; former Commonwealth secretary general, Sir Shridath Ramphal; Dominica’s president Nicholas Liverpool, who was Dean of the Faculty of Law at UWI and former appellate court judge; and UWI vice chancellor, Sir George Alleyne, have denied the newspaper report.
Their three-page statement said, “We wish particularly to correct the inference that Trinidad and Tobago is carrying a disproportionate cost of the CCJ. The running costs of the court are paid from the annual income of a trust fund of approximately US$100 million raised by the Caribbean Development Bank. All CARICOM countries are responsible for the trust fund in agreed amounts.”
The CMC report stated that the statement from the eminent Caribbean nationals also pointed out that Trinidad and Tobago “had fought forcefully for the headquarters of the Court” and the statement added that they were compelled to issue the statement because, as recipients of the OCC, “we each believe that this cherished honour imposes an obligation on us to speak out if ever we feel that the Community’s highest purpose and the interests of its people are being critically endangered.”
Meanwhile Trinidad and Tobago opposition leader, Dr Keith Rowley, is strongly advocating that his country accept the CCJ as its final court and rid itself from the Privy Council.
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