GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC -Guyana’s Attorney General Anil Nandlall said Wednesday that 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.
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 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 spiraling 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 organized, 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 organized 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 recognized 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 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, judges, and heads of law enforcement agencies, recognizing 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 that conference produced several resolutions, 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, birthed the
The Needham’s Point Declaration.
The Needham’s Point Declaration covers critical 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 the protection of the innocent.
Nandlall said that many of the legal issues, concepts, and thematic areas that 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 analyzing 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-emphasized, 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 analyze and scientifically examine the law and its application.
“The engagements of these different and disparate functionaries will ineluctably lend to a cross-fertilization of ideas and a synthesis of experience that must impel to formulating a criminal justice reform strategy, adept and clever enough, to tackle the monster of crime facing the region.
“In our deliberations, we must recognize that we are operating in exceptional circumstances and 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 this journey has started across the region in many respects and must now be accelerated.
“Introspection is required from all sides. Deficiencies identified must be admitted without procrastination. Remedial measures must be implemented with enthusiasm.
“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. This legislation must be crafted to contextually and resiliently confront the identified conduct that is offensive to the law and results in social disorder.”
The Attorney General said that those endowed with the functional power to interpret this legislation must do so, recognizing the mischief that this legislation was conceived and designed to address.
He said that the legal fraternity must aggressively pursue continuous education 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 always be ready to offer legal and forensic assistance to the courts. Judges and Magistrates must inject competence, impartiality, and efficiency in discharging their functions.”
Nandlall said cases must be concluded within a reasonable time and that adjournments must only be granted for good and sufficient reasons.
“Once a decision is made, the reasons must be made available swiftly so that the appellate process can proceed with dispatch. Too often, 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 practicality,” he told the regional and international delegates.
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