PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC:
THE CARIBBEAN chapters of the Global Organisation for People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) have criticised the selection of judges appointed to the soon to be inaugurated Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).
The Trinidad and Guyana chapters of the organisation said that the Regional Judicial and Legal Service Commission (RJLSC) had not appointed any judge of East Indian descent to the CCJ.
Last month, the RLJSC announced the names of six judges to serve the court, which will replace the London-based Privy Council as the region's final Court of Appeal. It will be headquartered in Port of Spain and most likely inaugurated by March next year.
"We wish to express our concerns at the exclusion and marginalisation of the Indo-community," GOPIO said in a statement on the weekend.
"The Guyana Indian Heritage Association (GIHA) fully supports GOPIO's condemnation of the Regional Judicial and Legal Service Commission, who have chosen to ignore the Indian Caribbean presence in its selection of judges for the Caribbean Court of Justice."
UNCONSTITUTIONAL PRACTICES
"GHIA is dismayed that the unfair and unconstitutional practices of ignoring the region's ethnic composition extends to the Caribbean community," GOPIO's president Parsuram Maharaj said.
He said GIHA would join GOPIO (Trinidad) in "appealing to international organisations for a Caribbean Court of Justice that would instil confidence by having a body representative of all the Caribbean people."
"Of the 6.4 million people living in the 14-member states of CARICOM (Caribbean Community), at least 20 per cent are Indians (who) live mainly in Guyana and Trinidad, two of the countries that will bear the heaviest part of the financial burdens for the CCJ."
"If Indian taxpayers are financing this court, why are they being excluded? We are making a fundamental change to the architecture of our justice system without catering for the single largest racial minority. This is wrong," Maharaj said.
