ACTING Chief Justice Roxanne George-Wiltshire did not apply for either position of chief justice or chancellor of the judiciary, sources close to the panel that conducted the interview said on Thursday.

In fact, the Guyana Chronicle understands that there were five applicants including the duo nominated for the two top posts: Kenneth Benjamin (Chancellor) and Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards (Chief Justice). There has been much public discourse over who applied and have been nominated by the President. Many were of the opinion that Justice George was overlooked by President David Granger when in fact, she did not apply for any of the posts. On Wednesday, in a letter to the editor, six representatives of the Red Thread, a non-governmental organisation joined the debate. In their missive published by this newspaper under the heading, “Both had demonstrated integrity and independence in their decisions,” the letter writers said both Justices George and Cummings-Edwards are worthy of confirmation in their posts.

“Both have demonstrated, particularly since their acting appointments, integrity and independence in their decisions in constitutional and citizens’ rights cases and in upholding the rule of law, and have clearly not allowed governmental expectations to influence their decisions,” the letter said.

The letter writers comprising Andaiye, Karen De Souza, Patricia Sheerattan- Bisnauth, Josephine Whitehead and Danuta Radzik, said it would be disappointing if either of the two women jurists applied for their substantive posts and not be recommended by the advisory panel appointed by the president.

That panel comprises Justice of Appeal, Claudette Singh; Justice James Patterson and Professor Harold Lutchman. “We are not aware of any other acting appointments in which the holders have not been substantively confirmed and have effectively [been] demoted in preference for someone else. It seems that the notion that women are dispensable and should be ready to step aside for a man when asked to do so is alive and well in Guyana, despite all the rhetoric about gender equality,” the missive continued. The letter writers opined that the appointment of the women to the acting positions in March 2017 “gave hope and encouragement to women and girls that are survivors of brutal trauma and sexual assault.”

While the other applicants and nominees for the two posts are unknown, sources maintain that Justice George did not apply and as such could not be considered for either post.
Meanwhile, Benjamin, who is a Guyanese-born Chief Justice of Belize is an experienced judicial officer and attorney-at-law with highly developed research skills and a profound knowledge of the laws of the Commonwealth Caribbean states and territories, his Curriculum Vitae stated. He was admitted to law practice 39 years ago and serves as a judicial officer at the magisterial, high court and appellate levels in Antigua and Barbuda, British Virgin Islands, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Dominica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Belize for 24 years.

He also lectured and facilitated training initiatives for judicial officers and court personnel in the Eastern Caribbean, Barbados and Belize, supervisor of implementation of case-management and delay-reduction processes in the criminal justice system in Saint Lucia, participated in committees for rule-making and civil-procedure review in the Eastern Caribbean. Benjamin also served as chair of the Judicial and Legal Services Commission and General Legal Council of Belize, introduced and executed criminal justice reforms and alternative dispute resolution initiatives to the justice system in Belize and piloted child-friendly family courts.

Additionally, he serves as Chair of the Conference of Heads of Judiciary of the Caribbean, a post he has held since 2015. Benjamin, a former Queen’s College graduate, studied law at the Universities of Guyana and the West Indies, along with the Hugh Wooding Law School.
Justice Cummings-Edwards on the other hand has 28 years legal and judicial experience. She started her career as a state prosecutor and legal advisor in the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecution and rose to various senior positions thereafter. Apart from being acting Chancellor of the Judiciary, she served as acting Chief Justice, Justice of Appeal, judge of the High Court, Acting Director of Public Prosecutions, and Senior state Counsel. Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards is also the holder of a Masters of Laws Degree from the University of London.

She has also attended several international conferences and participated in a number of international courses including but not limited to, the Inter-American Congress on the Environmental rule of Law, workshop for judges and judicial officers on cyber-crime, case management and backlog reduction, National Association of Women Judges Conference, Military justice and human rights, workshops on trafficking in persons, narcotics and psychotropic substances control, precursor chemical and witness protection among others. Justice Cummings- Edwards is a member of the Guyana Association of Women Judges, where she serves as President, the Caribbean Association of judicial officers, where is an executive member, the International Association of Women Judges, the Hague Network of Judges, the Commonwealth Magistrates and Judges Association and the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute, where she was a fellow. A number of landmark decisions were handed down in the Court of Appeal of Guyana for which she has had responsibility.