... Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, but under US Federal law the prosecution can demand it for federal capital offences. 2, pp. The anti-death penalty movement in the Greater Caribbean must now revise and re-energise its strategy and efforts. 71 These territories belong to a shrinking minority of retentionist nations. Trinidad and Tobago retain the Privy Council as a court of final appeal. Commonwealth Caribbean - 5 - Human Rights Seminar Rapporteur's introduction and summary recommendations Parvais Jabbar, Simons Muirhead & Burton Ishould like to begin by remembering the context in which this conference took place. This article was amended on 16 January 2018. The Attorney General has now revived the earlier proposal for the substitution of criminal jurisdiction of the Privy Council with the CCJ. Over the last three decades, however, many former British colonies have reformed their capital punishment regimes to permit judicial sentencing discretion, including consideration of mitigating factors. But the majority felt that section 26 403, 411-23 (2006) (identifying the following areas of judicial activism by the JCPC: (1) The impact of delay in carrying out a death sentence; (2) the determination Section 2 of the Barbados Offences Against the Person Act 1868 provided, as section 1 of the English Act of 1861 had done, "whosoever shall be convicted of murder shall suffer death as a felon." World Day Against the Death Penalty was observed last Saturday and the IACHR said that the Inter-American Human Rights System has played a crucial role to establish international standards concerning the death penalty. 4, No. As the Privy Council stated in White v The Queen [2010] UKPC 22, (Belize) at paragraph 17, neither of the two principles articulated in Trimmingham v The Queen [2009] … It is in this context that the marking of the World Day Against the Death Penalty on October 10, 2013 must be viewed. The death row population in the region per capita is about four times that of the United States. 30-43. • Arif Bulkan, The death penalty in the Commonwealth Carribean: Justice out of reach? The death penalty as applied in many Commonwealth countries today can be traced back to colonial times. As with other countries in the Commonwealth Caribbean, Guyana inherited the death penalty through English common law, and it is a part of the colonial legacy. Historically, at English common law, the death penalty was mandatory for the crime of murder and other violent felonies. In the case of Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados, the death penalty is mandatory, so that where a person is convicted of murder, the judiciary has no option but to impose the death sentence: Charles Matthew v. The State (2004) UKPC 33, (2000). International Legal Trends and the ‘Mandatory’ Death Penalty in the Commonwealth Caribbean. This seminar focuses on one of the last outposts of the death penalty in the democratic world: the Commonwealth Caribbean. The Commonwealth Caribbean remains an obstinate holdout against the international trend limiting use of the death penalty. The abolition of the mandatory death penalty in the Commonwealth Caribbean, East Africa, and South Asia was the product of strategic human rights litigation brought by a network of London-based human rights lawyers and their partners on the ground. Many Commonwealth Caribbean countries have at least one prisoner on death row. 2006] THE DEATH PENALTY IN THE COMMONWEALTH CARIBBEAN 407 similar statute in Barbados. The retention of the… This conference has been a long term objective of the Commonwealth Caribbean Death Penalty Project, a joint initiative View Commonwealth Caribbean Research Papers on Academia.edu for free. 2, pp. J. INT’L L. 126, 126 n.2 (2004), explained that: “The term ‘Commonwealth Caribbean’ refers to a regional grouping of independent states that share political and … p.114 • Usha Ramanathan, The death penalty in India: Down a slippery slope p.134 • Alice Mogwe, The death penalty in Botswana: Barriers to equal justice p.154 • Innocent Maja,The death penalty in Zimbabwe: Legal ambiguitites p.164 2. 4 Saul Lehrfreund, International Legal Trends and the Mandatory Death Penalty in the Commonwealth Caribbean 1 Oxford U. Commw. Historically, the UK extended its laws to overseas dominions and the mandatory death penalty by hanging was one of the myriad laws and customs that was bequeathed to the territories of the British Empire during the colonial era. However, Guyana’s ongoing retention of the capital punishment continues to mark it as an outlier amongst its continental neighbours, as it is the only South American country to retain the death penalty. Barbados replaced the appellate jurisdiction of the Privy Council with that of the Caribbean Court of Justice in 2004. LJ. 171 (2001) [2018] CCJ 19 (AJ) 6 provisions of section 15(1) of the Constitution5. The heart of the story lies in the approach that has been adopted by the Privy Council over the years in respect of the death penalty in the Commonwealth Caribbean. Freedom of Expression Freedom of Expression in the Caribbean The International Journal of Human Rights: Vol. The Death Penalty: Remedying The Problems of Compliance with International Standards in the Commonwealth Caribbean Hon Mr Justice R Carl Rattray, OJ, QC The Commonwealth Caribbean and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Andreas Mavrommatis III. The campaign must be multi-faceted and conducted on the legal, political, educational and cultural fronts. The Mandatory Death Penalty in the Commonwealth Caribbean and the Inter-American Human Rights System: An Evolution in the Development and Implementation of International Human Rights Protections The Commonwealth Caribbean remains an obstinate holdout against the international trend limiting use of the death penalty. Independent Caribbean Commonwealth countries, such as Trinidad and Tobago, were not affected by that legal change and retain the death penalty. Abstract. The death penalty, human rights and British law lords: Judicial opinion on delay of execution in the commonwealth Caribbean. Français Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal: Vol. It was the First Greater Caribbean Conference against the Death Penalty, held in Madrid in 2011, that paved the way for the creation of a full-fledged regional organization against the death penalty. The continued role of the Privy Council has been viewed as controversial by some commentators in the Commonwealth Caribbean. Homepage Caribbean Court of Justice strikes down mandatory death penalty in Barbados; Good news Caribbean Court of Justice strikes down mandatory death penalty in Barbados Article by Death Penalty Project published on June 27th, 2018. 171-194. The Use of International Law by Domestic Tribunals in the Caribbean in Death Penalty Cases Transitions in Caribbean Law: Lawmaking Constitutionalism and the Confluence of National and International Law, edited by David Berry and Tracy Robinson, 102-127 (Kingston, Jamaica: Ian Randle Publishers, 2013). Speakers will address the legal and practical concerns involved in challenging the death penalty and its alternatives, particularly in an environment where it is often supported by politicians, the legal profession and the general public. Joanna Harrington, The Challenge to the Mandatory Death Penalty in the Commonwealth Caribbean, 98 AM. Penalty in the Commonwealth Caribbean: Studies in Judicial Activism, 30 Nova L. Rev. That organization is the GCL, which was incorporated under the laws of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico on 31 January 2014. (2001). All of the Commonwealth Caribbean states retain the death penalty, 70 although only Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and the Bahamas have actually hanged prisoners within the last ten years. The rising calls worldwide for a moratorium on the death penalty parallel the judicial erosion of the mandatory death penalty (“MDP”) in a number of Commonwealth Caribbean nations. The Death Penalty All Commonwealth Caribbean countries retain the death penalty for some types of murder. 1, No. Many of the Commonwealth Caribbean countries have at least one prisoner, on death row. World Day Against the Death Penalty was observed last Saturday and the IACHR said that the Inter-American Human Rights System has played a crucial role to establish international standards concerning the death penalty. Grenada: The Sovereignty of a People p 3; Letter to the Editor p 7; Case Notes p 8; Comments on Legislation p 13; Notices p 17; The Law and Practice of the Caribbean Community (C.W. The Death Penalty: Developments in Caribbean Jurisprudence LORD ANTHONY GIFFORD* I thank the International Association of Law Libraries for your warm hospitality. HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing nearly 2,700 academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. The death penalty cannot be justified by the prevalence of murder or other similar offences. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and the Death Penalty in the Commonwealth Caribbean: Studies in Judicial Activism What Is HeinOnline? The Commonwealth lags behind global trends on abolition, but taking an official stance against the death penalty would put it back on the international stage.