Veteran journalist Julian Rogers condemns referral of Barnett reappointment to the CCJ
The Barbadian-born broadcaster says Caricom leaders have “outsourced a political hot potato” and accuses Trinidad and Tobago of treating the court as a “Convenient Court of Justice”.
BELMOPAN, Belize. Veteran Caribbean journalist Julian Rogers has condemned the decision by Caricom leaders to refer the reappointment of Secretary-General Dr Carla Barnett to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).
Rogers, a Barbadian-born media consultant based in Belmopan, told Caribbean Life on Monday, July 13, that the referral was “a manoeuvre so wrapped in legal irony and political evasion that the giants who laboured to establish the court, both living and dead, must be scratching their heads.”
He said the proposal, advanced by Trinidad and Tobago in a 22-page objection letter and accepted by the conference, freezes Barnett in her post until the court delivers an advisory opinion, bypassing a contract framework that requires at least six months’ notice on extension or termination.
Rogers, principal of the consultancy Caribbean Bridges, has more than 50 years of broadcasting experience across Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, St Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Belize.
‘Non-binding’
He noted that under Article 212 of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas the CCJ has exclusive jurisdiction to give advisory opinions, but that such an opinion is non-binding and would simply return to the same heads of government “currently locked in stalemate.”
“By running to the Court, the leaders haven’t solved a legal problem; they have merely outsourced a political hot potato to buy time,” he said.
He said Barnett had been left facing “weeks of administrative purgatory under a public cloud of uncertainty,” adding: “What young, brilliant West Indian technocrat, currently excelling in London, New York, or Basseterre, would choose to eschew a lucrative private-sector career to return and labour in the regional vineyard if this is the reward?”
Trinidad and the court
Rogers said Trinidad and Tobago hosts the CCJ’s headquarters but does not accept its appellate jurisdiction. Asked at the end of the summit in St Lucia whether that would change, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar replied: “Not at this time.”
“By using the court down the street to park an uncomfortable political gridlock, Port-of-Spain is opening itself up to the biting charge of treating the highest tribunal in the region as the ‘Convenient Court of Justice’,” Rogers said.
He argued that leaders could instead have convened an independent panel of eminent Caribbean jurists, such as Sir Johnny Cheltenham or former CCJ president Adrian Saunders, which would have given a swift answer. “And a swift answer is exactly what our leaders were trying to avoid,” he said.
Barnett, 68, a Belizean-born economist and former Belize government minister, has been Caricom secretary-general since 2021.
