PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Guyanese-born jurist, Justice Arif Bulkan, has been appointed a choose of the Trinidad-based Caribbean Courtroom of Justice (CCJ), changing Justice Winston Anderson, who was elevated to the presidency of the court docket on July 4.
Justice Bulan’s appointment was introduced by the Regional Judicial and Authorized Companies Fee (RJLSC), the impartial physique chargeable for recruiting workers and judges for the CCJ, which was established in 2001 to switch the London-based Privy Council because the area’s highest and remaining court docket.
Justice Arif Bulkan
“The RJLSC has the obligation of constructing appointments to the workplace of Choose of the Caribbean Courtroom of Justice and makes these appointments primarily based solely on the deserves of the candidates, together with their experience, integrity, and dedication to justice,” mentioned Justice Anderson, the RJLSC chairman.
He mentioned through the recruitment course of, the Fee acquired roughly 26 purposes from Australia, Barbados, Canada, Cameroon, Fiji, Guyana, Jamaica, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, St. Lucia, Sri Lanka, the USA, and Trinidad and Tobago.
“Of the purposes acquired, 5 candidates, three males and two females, had been shortlisted for additional consideration and subsequently interviewed, and the profitable applicant appointed. The Fee stays dedicated to sustaining a course of that’s honest, clear, and neutral,” Justice Anderson mentioned.
Justice Bulkan is a graduate of the College of the West Indies, the College Faculty London, and in addition holds a Physician of Philosophy in Regulation from Osgoode Corridor Regulation Faculty, York College, Canada.
He has labored each regionally and internationally and in the midst of his profession has functioned in numerous capacities, together with as a litigator, educational, writer, activist, choose, and worldwide legislation skilled.
Justice Bulkan was admitted to the Bar in Guyana in 1990 and sat on the Courtroom of Enchantment of Guyana in 2018, and since Could 2022, has served as a Choose of the Courtroom of Enchantment of Belize.
Between 2008 and 2022, Justice Bulkan taught within the School of Regulation of the College of the West Indies. He was additionally an skilled member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, serving as one of many Committee’s Vice Chairpersons from 2019 to 2022. He was elected in June 2023 to the Inter-American Fee on Human Rights for a four-year time period and is presently serving because the Fee’s Second Vice-President.
Justice Bulkan has printed broadly on indigenous rights, human rights, and constitutional legislation. For his work in human rights, he was conferred with the Anthony Sabga Caribbean Award for Public and Civic Contributions in 2017 and was named a PANCAP/CARICOM Champion for Change in 2017.
Justice Bulkan is predicted to be sworn in on a date to be introduced in October.
