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Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court
Administration and Governance
Management

Keywords: Caribbean

Description:

UNDP Report on Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Guyana, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago

Published 2020

Inequality, discrimination and exclusion remain severe obstacles to universal sustainable development.

Unfortunately, COVID-19 has exacerbated this development deficit and challenged the aspiration of access to justice for all. People living in poverty and marginalized groups may not be aware of their legal rights and often lack legal protection and access to mechanisms to remedy their grievances, resulting in increased vulnerability. Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) has a devastating, long-term effect on the lives of victims, their families and communities, and impedes development progress. This Needs Assessment Report (NAR) has a conceptual framework based on a human rights-based approach, intersectional and UNDP´s guidelines in order to move the Caribbean region from a less punitive to a more rehabilitative system.

Through this analysis and review exercise of the judicial cycle in the Caribbean, it was possible to identify the main challenges for a people-centred approach to justice that leaves no one behind. The report aims to highlight trends across the Caribbean region in order to determine how best the development partners can add value to current efforts and initiatives on improving access to justice and its administration in the Caribbean. 

This Needs Assessment Report on the administration of justice in the Caribbean provides an up-to-date analysis of the main opportunities and challenges in the region. A salient challenge identified is the lack of available data for the design of regional and national assessments and result oriented solutions.

Another important conclusion of the report is that in all jurisdictions the backlog of cases – particularly in the criminal division – is one of the most challenging issues. The reasons for the backlogs are multifaceted and include primarily the slow pace of investigations by police, inordinate delays in production of depositions, and lack of human and technological resources. The main consequence of the backlogs is a failure to “provid(e) accessible, fair and efficient justice for the people and states of
the Caribbean Community.”

In terms of general stakeholders’ feedback (provided through questionnaires, consultations and a regional judges consultation) the consensus was that there is over-use of pre-trial detention because of a lack of alternative pre-trial options, causing not only a slow judiciary process but, most important, causing a due process violation, that needs to be addressed urgently.

The report reflects on a whole-of-system approach which identifies bottlenecks at different stages of the administration of justice. For example, while replacing Preliminary Inquiries with paper committals or sufficiency hearings, such a change, without other “fixes”, will merely shift the overload to the various offices of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in the Caribbean region.

In terms of the quality of judicial services provided to the public, there are significant areas in which public perception may be negatively affected. The report argues that important improvements are necessary in order for the justice system to provide timely, consistent, responsive and transparent services. In terms of good experiences identified, Governments have undertaken numerous efforts to improve the administration of justice. Efforts at country level have included legislative reform, upgrading and
strengthening of institutional capacities of the range of justice institutions, and professional development. Specialized Courts such as drug, family, juvenile, and sexual offences courts have been introduced. Others have moved to introduce more structure and discipline to the case management process prior to and during trials and more use of technology such as automated court case management systems to increase efficiency. These improvements have been most successful in the area of civil law,
where stakeholders confirmed that backlogs have been substantially reduced. However, in the case of criminal matters, a practical example would be the decriminalization of marijuana in December 2019 in Trinidad and Tobago, which had an immediate effect of reducing the case backlog by approximately 8,000 cases by January 2020.
Some innovative experiences can also be highlighted. In the course of this Needs Assessment, several initiatives were identified which address some of the challenges highlighted and have improved the administration of justice in the relevant jurisdiction. Even though the analysis covers nine Caribbean countries (Antigua and Barbuda; Barbados; Belize; Dominica; Grenada; Guyana; Saint Kitts and Nevis; Saint Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago), most of the identified trends, challenges and opportunities may be valid to other islands in the region, considering the similarities in context and development situations. In this sense, for a next step, it is worth assessing some of these initiatives and recommendations in order to scale-up the good experience to other countries.

The COVID-19 global pandemic has had a severe impact in the administration of justice worldwide, and the Caribbean region has been no exception. The consequences of COVID-19 highlight specific justice concerns, such as institutionalizing reforms to strengthen the effectiveness and efficiency of the justice chain in a radically shifted social context. This needs assessment report makes recommendations in light of the new challenges exposed by COVID-19. These recommendations include an emphasis on
citizen´s rights to justice and a people centre-approach to ensure no-one is left behind in the recovery process. The recommendations for the Caribbean countries in facilitating access to justice in the COVID-19 recovery encompass access to independent and impartial control mechanism; access to justice for all and addressing the backlog of cases. 

The recommendations on access to legal services and legal information are critical as prevalent inequalities have and will continue to be highlighted by the pandemic. The justice sector will need surge capacities to be able to handle the increased backlog in an effective, fair and timely manner. Successful innovative strategies adopted during the crisis should be continued and built upon to overcome some of the systemic barriers which citizens encounter in accessing justice and to reduce the backlog of cases. Such initiatives, including the use of remote technology for legal proceedings, prison decongestion strategies, measures reducing usage of pretrial detention, online dispute resolution, and virtual access to legal aid providers, should be retained as long-term measures. Engaging informal justice mechanisms, and other traditional dispute resolution mechanisms, that may predominantly deal with family matters, may be further explored to ensure compliance with international human rights standards. The
recommendations also reflect on the response and measures adopted to protect and promote access to justice in the context of COVID-19.

The NAR includes recommendations at two levels: regional and national. At the regional level, the main recommendations include how to ensure equal access to justice for all by 2030 recognizing that gender equality is achieved when both sexes enjoy the same rights and opportunities across society, including access to justice. For this purpose, SDG16 was the lens used throughout this assessment. At the national level, the NAR provides more country-specific proposals to detailed local challenges.

Notes:

Caribbean Justice: a needs assessment of the judicial system in nine countries