GEORGETOWN, Guyana - Guyana’s Attorney General, Anil Nandlall Wednesday said while the law must remain organic, nurtured, shaped and molded to meet the exigencies of an ever-evolving society, its stagnation will result in societal evolution beyond the regulatory capability of the law.
Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall SC )CMC Photo)Addressing the first legal conference on criminal justice reform, Nandlal, who is also the Minister of Legal Affairs, said this resultant social advancement without a commensurate legal regulatory framework, is what leads to a breakdown of law and order and consequential social chaos.
“Unfortunately, such is the legal and social reality in almost every jurisdiction across our region, with a spiralling rate of violence, crime and ensuing social turmoil. “
Nandlall said with easy access to guns and ammunition, coupled with the availability of information and communications technology at the disposal of criminals, crime has become a “very organised, complex and sophisticated phenomena across the region.
“In most jurisdictions, criminals, often operating in gangs, even across borders, do so with uncanny ease and with an unacceptable degree of impunity,” Nandlall told the two-day conference organised by the Guyana government, the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) Academy for Law and is part of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)-funded Support for the Criminal Justice System (SCJS) project in Guyana.
Nandlall said that this stark reality was recognised at no less a forum than a summit of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders recently, where it was resolved that a special symposium be held to address crime and violence, declared to be a public health issue in the region.
He said the symposium held in Trinidad and Tobago last year, under the theme “Violence as a Public Health Issue – The Crime Challenge” resulted in the stakeholders, including attorneys general, national security ministers, directors of public prosecutions as well as judges, heads of law enforcement agencies recognising that “the epidemic of crime and violence in the Caribbean was a threat to our democracy and the stability of our societies”.
He said that a number of resolutions emanated from that conference, including a comprehensive overhaul of the criminal justice system in the region.
Nandlall said that the regional symposium was one of the catalysts for the CCJ Academy for Law hosting its seventh Biennial Law Conference in Barbados last October that birthed the
the Needham’s Point Declaration.
The Needham’s Point Declaration covers key areas related to criminal justice reform, including policy and legislative interventions, prosecution, police representation for the accused victims’ rights and judicial interventions. The declaration emphasizes the need for swift justice for the guilty and protection of the innocent.
Nandlall said that many of the legal issues, concepts and thematic areas which emerged as resolutions from that important regional symposium, are on the agenda “for our forensic examination and juridical interrogation.
‘It is clear, therefore, that our discussions will not be of a jurisprudential academic nature but we will be analysing fundamental legal issues of undoubted practical and pragmatic importance, already identified to be so integral to peace, stability and legal order across the region.
Nandlall said that the importance of fora such as these cannot be over-emphasised, saying they bring together the maker of the law, the interpreter of the law, the enforcer of the law, the practitioner of the law and of course the subject of the law, in a singular engagement to critically analyse and scientifically examine the law and its application.
“The engagements of these different and disparate functionaries will ineluctably lend to a cross-fertilisation of ideas and a synthesis of experience that must impel to the formulation of a criminal justice reform strategy, adept and adroit enough, to tackle the monster of crime facing the region.
“In our deliberations, it is incumbent upon us to recognize that we are operating in exceptional circumstances and we are confronting an extraordinary problem. Therefore, our discussions must be robust and candid, our ideas bold and innovative, and our recommendations pragmatic and futuristic.”
Nandlall warned that “conservative conventional postures and positions will simply not fly. Extraordinary circumstances require extraordinary responses”.
He said in many respects, this journey has started across the region and must now be accelerated.
“Introspection is required from all sides. Deficiencies identified must be admitted without procrastination. Remedial measures must be implemented with alacrity.
“Legislators must swiftly dispense with anachronistic legislation and replace them with modern ones that will bring into force new legal processes, some, already tried and tested in many parts of the world. These legislation must be crafted to contextually and resiliently confront the identified conduct that is offensive to the law and which results in social disorder.”
The Attorney General said that those endowed with the functional power to interpret these legislation must do so recognising the mischief which these legislation were conceived and designed to address.
He said that the legal fraternity must aggressively pursue continuous education in order to update their knowledge and keep abreast of new and emerging developments in the law. “Practitioners must execute their duties with diligence and professionalism and must be always ready to offer legal and forensic assistance to the courts. Judges and Magistrates must inject competence, impartiality and efficiency in the discharge of their functions.”
Nandlall said cases must be concluded within reasonable time and that adjournments must only be granted for good and sufficient reasons.
“Once a decision is made, the reasons therefor must be made available swiftly so that the appellate process can proceed with dispatch. Two often do we hear the cry across the region, “justice delayed is justice denied”. Governments must ensure that the Judiciary is adequately resourced to enable the discharge of their duties with the requisite expediency,” he told the regional and international delegates.
