(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Renewed calls for a consolidation and deepening of the integration movement particularly within the contexts of the development of a rules-based Community and the prevailing economic climate were the common themes at the opening ceremony of a high level law symposium in Trinidad and Tobago.
Speakers at the opening ceremony of the Inaugural Symposium: Current Developments in Caribbean Law at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Port of Spain on Monday evening reiterated the importance of unity in the face of challenges and dismissed notions of the demise of the integration movement.
The Hon. David Thompson, Prime Minister of Barbados and CARICOM Head of Government with portfolio of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), invoked Mark Twain and described as “grossly exaggerated” any predictions of doom.
“I am fully cognizant of the dire fate prophesised by some for the Community, perhaps most wittily expressed in the refrain “CARI-COM (E); CARI-GONE! However, I believe, similar to Mark Twain’s description of rumours of his death, that these predictions of doom are `grossly exaggerated’, the Prime Minister said in his address at the opening.
Prime Minister Thompson stressed that sporadic disagreements among Member States of a Community did not equate to disunity, but rather differences of opinion on how best to achieve such unity.
“Indeed, no Member State has so far dissented from the view that we should embrace regional unity and this convergence, in my view, is the core of the matter,” he said.
His Excellency Edwin Carrington, Secretary-General of CARICOM, who chaired the opening ceremony, pointed to the positive developments within the Community.
“There are other positive dimensions of our integration arrangements beyond the areas of the economy and trade, such as human and social development, or functional cooperation, security cooperation, and to a certain degree, the coordination of foreign policy, which have all served to dispel any notion that this is a time for despair and hand-wringing.
“The welcome lesson here is that too much has already been achieved, too much remains to be achieved and too little by way of alternatives lies ahead of us,” the Secretary-General told the gathering.
Secretary-General Carrington said that the Symposium was being held at an opportune time, as the Community continued to consolidate its methodologies towards a rules-based system of ordering its affairs, guided in so doing by the judgment of “our own Caribbean Court of Justice”.
The Symposium, he said, was proof positive of the essential position that Caribbean Law Institute Centre (CLIC) and the University o the West Indies (UWI) must maintain in the arena of research and in their overall contribution to mainstream thinking within the Region.
The Secretary-General added that the Symposium was a manifestation of the types of positive collaboration that could be pursued between the CARICOM Secretariat, CLIC, which is an associate institution and the CCJ.
Professor Nigel Harris, Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies, underscored that the thrust of the Symposium was the CSME and the exploration of how the Community would establish and implement its legal, political and economic framework to promote regional integration “even at a time of economic disruption and local financial crisis”.
“My hope and expectation is that this conference will realise the objectives the organizers have set. Our central role must continue to be one of forging a more integrated region even as we help energise and contribute to its sustainable development,” Professor Harris said.
The keynote address was delivered by CCJ President, The Rt. Hon. Mr. Justice Michael de la Bastide. He presented an exposition on court remedies for the breach of constitutional rights and freedoms. According to him, the legal framework within the Caribbean Community must develop in such a way that fundamental constitutional rights and freedoms were continually preserved.
The Symposium wraps up on Wednesday.
