The Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC), Dame Janice M. Pereira has made a fresh call for member states of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court to make financial resources available in order for the court to function.
The Eastern Caribbean Supreme opened the New Law Year 2020 with the Ceremonial Opening in the form of a Special Sitting of the Court Antigua on Monday.
The ceremony, which usually takes place in September, has now been moved to January.
Dame Janice also chastised regional governments urging them to do more than lip service.
“The fact that a little time, just once in the space of the year to address funding for the court seems elusive and it speaks volumes about where the judiciary is pegged, somewhere at the bottom of the ladder,” she lamented.
According to Dame Janice, the continue chronic failure to adequately fund the court prevents the court from putting strategic plans in action.
“The reforms and enhancements current court processes and procedures and the addition of new ones coupled with capacity building among officers and court staff can only go so far,” she added.
She also revealed that for several months the court has been operating without an approved budget.
“I have implored our governments to do their parts to provide suitable and adequate court facilities and to fulfil their mandates to the judicial branch of government,” she said.
In her final plea on the subject matter, Dame Janice said it is time to stop making promises but rather fulfil them.
“It is time that attention be paid to the courts and the indispensable function they perform rather than the treatment endured year after year as if the courts are a nuisance afterthought,” she added.
The Chief Justice said the court is under-resourced in terms of finances and human resources.
She also called on qualified members of the legal fraternity to step up to the plate.
This is not the first time the Chief Justice is highlighting the plight of the court
Funding for what? Their response to electoral matters show them as the most corrupt court in the world.
What a useless body of crooks posing as officers of the court as it should be. They allowed Skerrit to go ahead with the election at the last minute hoping he would dump cash on the useless court as soon as he win. Well it did not happen because Dca is now broke. Imagine we posted a high level marketing official from DDA in Dubai immediately after election to sell passports at bargain prices to raise quick money for recurring expenditures. Skerro eh have no money left in the treasury to give you all.
I myself always said that the Privy Counsel was just fine and we should have NEVER moved to the CCJ. Bunch government patronizing sympathizers who constantly pervert the course of justice when their friends represent defendants/ governments.
Why make such silly assumptions in your opening paragraph.Did the court really let The PM go ahead with the election at the last minute hoping he would dump cash on the useless court as soon as he win, wow. You know political partisan beliefs can can do strange things to the mind, pity you for such ludicrous assumption. When you say that quote “I myself always said that the Privy Counsel was just fine and we should have NEVER moved to the CC J” How do you arrive at such a belief, is it based on facts and knowledge comparing the pros and cons or are you doing this swayed by partisan political beliefs. so long for your silly other assumptions.
How can the people living in Dominica, not in the diaspora, get a fair hearing in this setting, when Skerro is one of the most financially capable, because of Dominica’s passport money, to feed their outstretched hands. Do you understand why Motley, Gaston, Chastanet, Harris, and Mitchell, all with international airports, were quick to send RSS to Dominica to kill Dominicans? These colonially educated bourgeois will find against the people of Dominica, because they are deadly afraid of Lenox Linton, and do not want him to join their club and be exposed.
Do you see where the case against elections fraud in Dominica is heading?
Dominicans must take their business in their own hands and not allow some bourgeois in Caribbean Houses of Parliaments, in UWI, and finally in Robes to dictate for us. CCJ is going to defeat the case against fraud in Dominica’s elections.
Clearly, the boys from Newtown, as you will eventually become to understand as I have, will be the only…
Addressing the operational challenges of the Court does not win votes. So, the useless politicians will continue to ignore the Chief Justice’s pleas. What has happened to the agreed decision to establish Halls of Justice in the Member States? If I was the Chief Justice, I would resign to underscore my sore disappointment in the governments.
I concur with Dame Pereira. This state of affairs is a veritable disgrace and embarrassment. This jurisdiction covers the entire OECS, a total population of barely 600,000 and yet at least six prime ministers, each with their own retinue of civil servants that cost an arm and a leg to maintain. If justice can not be administered in reasonable time its effectiveness is severely curtailed to the point where our people’s rights have little meaning. Yet we continue prancing on a world stage, forgetting our first duty, which is to dispense justice without undue delay, to our people.
What she needs to be concerned about is taking out Bernie Brooks from our country. She has overstayed her welcome. It shows favoritism and injustice on the Chief justice management of the system. It must be a cult.
Familiarity breeds contempt.
Hmmm, the question is does anybody else want her?
Dear Dane Justice Pereira, can you and the Supreme Caribbean Court please ask Dominica’s PM Roosevelt Skerrit, to visit your office so he could clear the air on this direct quotation from an Al Jazeera report circulating online :
“The investigation also tracks the story of former Nigerian Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke. In 2015, just as she was being investigated for multi-million dollar fraud in Nigeria, Dominica’s Prime Minister personally handed her a Dominican diplomatic passport which potentially gave her immunity from arrest. Al Jazeera also asks whether that passport was linked to Prime Minister Skerrit’s family moving into a luxury New York apartment. That’s an allegation which both Diezani Allison-Madeke and Roosevelt Skerrit deny”.
As a Dominican residing in the DiASPORA I am very disturbed by this article and even worse, neither the Court in Dominica or the Caribbean Supreme Court has seen it fit to investigate the PM
Joke that man, Skerrit used for the the judge to do what he tells them and not the other way round. You forget he said is he that runs things not the judge.
Why do you think that you can change facts with your opinions and beliefs. Do you really believe that The PM personally handed a diplomatic passport to Diezani Alison-Madueke to evade prosecution in another jurisdiction. Why don’t you educate yourself regarding the use and issuance of a Diplomatic Passport and Diplomatic Immunity. Do you think that The PM giving Diezani Alison-Madueke a Diplomatic Passport in exchange for a luxury Apt. in NY can go undetected by US Authorities, is this where you got your story from. https://newsdigest.ng/news/2019/,wow. I wish I had enough space to debunk your nonsense. As to your statement quote, “neither the Court in Dominica or the Caribbean Supreme Court has seen it fit to investigate the PM” wow. Do you know what is the role of such Courts.The role of such Courts is not to carry out investigations. again you need to educate your self regarding the role of the Courts. You are entitled to your opinion but please give an informed opinion.