PRIME Minister Moses Nagamootoo has told a high-level conference of jurists that Government does not interfere with the work of the judiciary, and that the administration is committed to its independence in the discharge of its duties.A lawyer by training, the Prime Minister made the remark during the feature address made at the Monday opening of the conference of Commonwealth Magistrates’ and Judges’ Association, being held at the Marriott Hotel in Georgetown. This conference is being held under the theme “The Judiciary as Guarantors of the Rule of Law”.

Nagamootoo said that in the democracies which constitute the Commonwealth, “that guarantee provides a measure of comfort to our people and is an assurance of freedom and stability.” He noted that since the APNU+AFC administration’s assumption of office in May 2015, “we have made a conscious and determined effort at giving recognition and meaning to the declaration adopted on the 24th September, 2012 by the United Nations General Assembly at the High Level Meeting on the Rule of Law, which reaffirmed that: “Human rights, the Rule of Law and democracy are interlinked and mutually reinforcing, and that they belong to the universal and indivisible core values and principles of the United Nations.”

Nagamootoo said Government is conscious of the distinction that must be made between “rule by law”, whereby Government erroneously places itself above the law, and the “rule of law”, which implies that everyone in society, including the Government, is bound by the law.
“It is on the latter that we have rested the structure of Government, recognising that constitutional limits on the exercise of governmental authority — which is a key feature of any democracy — require adherence to the rule of law. Indeed, the quality of governance is defined by observance of the rule of law. Good governance depends on it,” Nagamootoo said in his remarks.

Currently performing the duties of President while President David Granger attends the United Nations General Assembly, Nagamootoo told the conference that, in recent times, constitutional reformers and law-makers have adopted liberal concepts in the approach to governance.

“First, we recognised that there should be clear limits to the power of the Executive, or Government. We recognised that Government exercises its authority through publicly disclosed laws that are adopted and enforced by (an) independent judiciary with established and accepted procedures. We are committed to the principle of ‘equality before the law’, and that the law must apply equally to the Government and the governed,” he explained.

INDEPENDENCE
On the issue of judicial independence, Nagamootoo said: “Our government is unshaken in the belief that, in our state structure, the judiciary should be independent (to the fullest extent of the meaning that can be given to the phrase). Our recognition is that an independent judiciary is the strongest guarantee for the protection of the rights of our citizens. We believe that an independent judiciary is the bedrock of the stability of our nation. We believe that only an independent judiciary could be the guarantor of the rule of law. So, within this focus and within this framework, our government has legislatively created the structure to give effect to true and meaningful judicial independence.”

He affirmed that Government has repeatedly and publicly so declared; and asserted that judges, in their adjudicatory role, are not in any way subjected to any form of improper, inappropriate or unwarranted governmental influence.

“That is a matter of which we in this present administration are exceptionally proud, and I make this claim without fear of contradiction. While we respect the separation of powers, we promote comity among the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary,” the Prime Minister declared.

Nagamootoo said that not only does the local judiciary enjoy independence when it decides issues between citizen and citizen, or between citizen and the state; it also has independence over its administrative machinery, its registries and their personnel. “More importantly, however, our government, by legislative intervention, recognised the judiciary as a constitutional agency and made provision for its financial independence by ensuring that the state provides adequate resources for the judiciary to perform its functions.”

The Prime Minister said, in sum, that the judiciary of Guyana enjoying adjudicatory, institutional and financial independence may be a first for the Commonwealth Caribbean.
“…a recent achievement since our assumption of office,” he declared.