PRIME MINISTER'S COMMITTEE TO DECIDE ON CARIBBEAN COURT OF JUSTICE

  October 14, 2009

PRIME MINISTER'S COMMITTEE TO DECIDE

ON CARIBBEAN COURT OF JUSTICE

A committee will be convened on Thursday, October 15, 2009 to re-examine Jamaica's participation in the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).

This was announced to Parliament yesterday, October 14, by Prime Minister Bruce Golding.

Saying that the country still had to be satisfied about several aspects about the Court, Mr. Golding cited as an example, the CCJ approval of the Privy Council's decision that prisoners condemned for execution should not stay on death row for longer than five years. This is referred to as the Pratt and Morgan case.

Audio Clip

"I have asked the Attorney General to do more research to determine whether CCJ is endorsing Pratt and Morgan. It is important for us to find out....A committee that will have its first meeting on Thursday to re-examine the question of the CCJ and we are doing so with no preconditions....When the issue of the CCJ was first presented, there were significant weaknesses in its constitution, in its financial independence, many of those have been addressed and we concede that but there are a number of other issues which we would want to examine....I am not unmindful that we must have a final court that is secure, that we will know will be available to us next week and next year and in ten years."