UN Rights Committee raises concerns over non appointment of substantive Chancellor, Chief Justice

Mar 25, 2024 News

Chancellor (ag) of the Judiciary, Yonette Cummings-Edwards and Chief Justice (ag), Roxane George

Kaieteur News – Vice Chairman of the UN Human Rights Committee, José Manuel Santos Pais raised concerns about the prolonged absence of a substantive Chancellor of the Judiciary and Chief Justice when Guyana came under review at the United Nations Human Rights Committee last week.
The Vice Chair had several questions for the Guyana delegation which was led by Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira.

He noted that “Several Presidents had kept judges in “acting” positions, negatively affecting their employment and security of tenure. Delays in the appointment of judges led to a significant backlog of legal cases. How was the independence of judges and prosecutors ensured? …How was the State party strengthening public confidence in the judiciary and the Direction of Public Prosecution?”

He added that “The entire Judiciary is therefore under some degree of influence and control by the Executive President of Guyana and the Parliament entailing the politicization of the Judiciary and delaying the appointment of Judges, leading to a significant of cases in both criminal, especially at pre-trial stages and civil courts.”

There has been a more than 20-year impasse on judicial appointments with the last substantive Chancellor being Justice Desiree Bernard and Justice Carl Singh, the last Chief Justice.

The current Chancellor, Yonette Cummings-Edwards and Chief Justice Roxane George have both been acting in their respective positions for a number of years. The opposition had complained that President, Dr. Irfaan Ali, assumed office on August 2, 2020, and from then to present, the Head of State has failed to initiate any process contemplated by Article 127 of the Constitution to make permanent appointments to the two offices.

But in response, Minister Teixeira told the committee the Chancellor and Chief Justice are appointed by agreement of the President Leader of Opposition and that the parties have been unable to reach an agreement for some time. However, she said acting appointments in the Judiciary is nothing new. She said too that the current formula of acting appointments has not resulted in a lack of independence on the government’s part.

“It is not a recent occurrence, the former chancellor and Chief Justice after the amendment was made in the constitution suffered the same fate and therefore, we have to review these political interventions in the constitution which was meant to build greater harmony and a better working relationship between the President and Opposition Leader,” Teixeira said.

Meanwhile, at a previous forum Attorney General Anil Nandlall SC emphasised that the appointment process for the substantive Chancellor and Chief Justice must be initiated by the President. “What is important is the President who must initiate the process of the appointment and then secure the Opposition Leader’s agreement.”

He noted that as soon as Government embarks on a widespread constitutional reform process, it will seek to upgrade archaic pieces of legislation embedded in Guyana’s Constitution.

According to Nandlall, one of the issues the government is hoping to remedy is the longstanding deadlock between any one sitting government and the opposition over the appointments of a chancellor and a chief justice. Guyana has been without a substantive chief justice and chancellor for over two decades. Before her ascension to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in 2005, Justice Desiree Bernard was the last confirmed Chancellor of the Judiciary, and Justice Carl Singh the last Chief Justice.

Justices Yonette Cummings-Edwards and Roxane George were appointed in 2017 to act in the capacity of chancellor and chief justice respectively by former President, David Granger.

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CCJ, Chancellor, Chief Justice, UN Rights Committee

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