CHIEF JUSTICE of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, Dame Janice M. Pereira in a presentation during a high-level virtual launch of the United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) report on Caribbean Justice: A needs assessment of the judicial system”, on July 17, 2020, has stressed the importance to build strength and develop human resources in the justice system, if successes are to be achieved.

“We need to build on our strengths within our justice system and put in place successful measures which we have observed in other jurisdictions, once we have adapted them to our individual and different environments and circumstances,” she said, also, “the need to develop our human resources is also paramount for us to achieve the successes which we desire.”
She said efforts must be made to change the negative public perception of our justice system, and opined that communication is key to achieving this.

Dame Janice Pereira, in 2012 became the first female chief justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC) in 2012. She is one of the first from the Virgin Islands from where she hails to be called to the bar and be appointed to the bench of the ECC and the first female to be appointed to the Court of Appeal.

The needs assessment project, conducted in Caribbean countries namely Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana, comprised an initial desk review, the development and application of an online needs assessment tool, broad consultations with judicial stakeholders in each jurisdiction, along with a subsequent consultation with regional judges from all participating countries.

According Justice Pereira, the blue print captures succinctly the issues facing the various countries, as they deal with security within the justice system, within the region and she found the information, in part, to be quite comprehensive and accurate.
“It provides an invaluable wealth of information which can be used by our respective judiciaries and policymakers in the various countries in order to bring about the necessary improvements to our justice system to better serve our citizens in the region,” she added.
Noting that a number of other studies have been conducted previously in the various countries, the judge said that very few had attempted to include the views and opinions of a cross section of stakeholders in a single report, as in this instance.

As such, she expressed her pleasure that one of the objectives of the report is to highlight the trends across the Caribbean Region, in order to assist the development partners in determining how best they can add value to the current efforts and in identifying initiatives for improving access to justice and administration of justice in the region. This she said is extremely important.
The report, she contended, provides an excellent baseline for what exists today: practical and sound recommendations for improvements to the system. It has been recognised that there is a lack of sufficient data to assist in making management decisions with result oriented solutions, and has certainly been one of the problems for some time, she added.

Commenting on specific areas for improvement, Justice Pereira alluded to the establishment of specialised courts where the impact will be positive for the justice system. Those are all areas to be explored once the requisite resources are available, and it is not merely shifting the problem from one point to another within the justice system.
The blueprint includes, among other things, the need to recognise the rights for persons who are on remand in prisons as accused persons, of course where there is a presumption of innocence under the constitution. And so, “we have to be extremely mindful of the impact of the measures which are in place to ensure that those rights of persons are not violated,” she stressed.

As it relates to collecting and the presentation of data, the judge said that while there has been improvement in those areas, what the report demonstrates is “we still have a long way to go if we are to get that right.”
The report notes that many of the jurisdictions and stakeholders are in the process of implementing information and communication technology tools and systems. It is therefore important that these tools be used to define the date requirement and ensure that the systems generate that needed data, she added.

Alluding to the systems at ECSC, Justice Pereira said, “we have reached an advanced stage of implementation of its E-litigation, case management and electronic platform and as work progress with our software providers, we ensured that the court’s statistician was a part of that process, in order to ensure that the data needs of the court would be faceted into and generated by the solution.”
On the issue of case backlogs with the system, she said it is a problem throughout the region and it impacts on security and justice in the region and that the problems may be multifaceted.

“They are encountered at different stages and in different ways but it is an area clearly that we have to address… in a significant way, if we are to ensure that the public maintains trust and confidence or improve their trust and confidence in our justice system,” she said.

She noted that court facilities have been a major issue and it has been a significant contributing factor to the case backlog problem.
On this note she remarked, “The country level efforts at legislative reform must be continued as these too will assist with the management of case backlogs This is really fundamental and extremely important as a requirement if we are to achieve the desired levels of success.”
She reminded that the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the case backlog problem.
According to her, note has been of the strategies which are being employed in the different countries, and expressed confidence that once assessed, those which are successful would be of assistance to other countries.

Justice Pereira added that the uneven and inconsistent sentencing before the courts, negatively impacts the perception of fairness and impartiality in the system. As such, reforms such as sentencing guidelines are currently being undertaking and some already implemented. She said sentencing guidelines in other area, coupled with judicial education activities are all being addressed and would assist in a framework to make some change.
“But when doing so and in all that we do, we must remember that we must be communicating clearly to the public and informing them of the measures which are being put in place and ensure that there is adequate consultation and participation,” she added, as she expressed gratitude to the developing partners who have facilitated the reforms which are being implemented to date.