PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC—Barendra Sinanan, Chairman of the Constitutional Assessment Committee, has brushed apart Opposition Chief Kamla Persad Bissessar’s name for him to step down after he publicly endorsed Trinidad and Tobago’s transfer in the direction of gaining full membership of the Caribbean Court docket of Justice.
“Properly, I heard what Mrs. Persad Bissessar stated, and I don’t intend to step down,” Sinanan informed a radio station right here on Wednesday.
Persad Bissessar, talking at a public assembly of her United Nationwide Congress (UNC) on Monday evening, stated Sinanan, a former speaker of Parliament, had appeared on a radio program supporting the CCJ changing the London-based Privy Council because the nation’s highest and ultimate courtroom.
“I’m going to warn you now, the UNC won’t ever at this vote to abolish the Privy Council, not at the moment,” she informed supporters, including that the chairman has proven bias and must step down.
“The chairman brazenly endorsed abolishing the Privy Council on that radio program. So you will have made up your thoughts: transfer the Privy Council, abolish it, go to the CCJ.
She stated that the chairman consulting has to maintain a impartial floor, including, “You don’t give your view. All of us have views. If you’re chairing, what are you there to do? You might be there to hearken to factors individuals are bringing ahead,” she added.
She stated that the chairman has proven bias and must step down.
“I do know the chairman. I do know he’s a good human being…respectable, respectable lawyer. I feel he is aware of what to do—he has to recuse himself.”
However Sinanan, a Senior Counsel, informed radio listeners that his opinion “is just not the committee’s opinion.
“My opinion is just not the individuals’s opinion. Our mandate is to listen to what the individuals should say… We are going to submit our work to the Prime Minister (Dr. Keith Rowley), and regardless of the individuals say might be within the report.
“My opinion is irrelevant,” he stated, including that the committee is holding a number of different conferences earlier than submitting a report.
In January, Prime Minister Rowley informed a information convention that the committee members should not being requested to craft a structure.
“They’re merely being requested to facilitate and advance a nationwide discourse on the topic and to be the sounding board, the publish workplace, into which any events, companies (and) organizations will wish to put their views to this facility advisory committee.”
He stated the committee members will obtain the assist and assets to conduct open consultations and collate and draft a working doc for the constitutional convention in June, at which proposed amendments might be mentioned.
Trinidad and Tobago authorities wants a particular majority within the Parliament to hitch the CCJ, and the UNC controls 19 of the 41 seats within the Legislative Chamber.
Not less than 5 Caribbean Neighborhood (CARICOM) international locations—Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Dominica, and St. Lucia—have made the Trinidad-based CCJ their ultimate courtroom. The regional international locations, together with Trinidad and Tobago, have joined the Authentic Jurisdiction of the Court docket, which additionally serves as a global tribunal deciphering the revised Treaty of Chaguaramas that governs CARICOM.
Associated
