THE Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), on Monday, announced that Justice Arif Bulkan, a Guyanese national, was selected to join the CCJ as a judge and will become the third Guyanese to be appointed to the bench.

This was disclosed in a media release from the court, which noted that Bulkan was selected by the Regional Judicial and Legal Services Commission (RJLSC), the independent body responsible for recruiting staff and judges for the CCJ.

Providing a brief background on Bulkan’s career, the release noted that he holds a Bachelor of Laws from The University of the West Indies; a Legal Education Certificate from the Hugh Wooding Law School; a Master of Laws from University College London; and a Doctor of Philosophy in Law from Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Canada.
He has worked both regionally and internationally, and in the course of his career has functioned in various capacities, including as litigator, academic, author, activist, judge, and international law expert.

He will fill the vacancy created by the elevation of Justice Winston Anderson to the presidency of the court in July of this year.
The release went on to note that Justice Bulkan was admitted to the bar in Guyana in 1990 and practised law at the chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) from 1990 to 1996, during which he rose to the rank of Assistant DPP.

He was later in private practice from 1997 to 2004 and later sat on the Court of Appeal in Guyana in 2018, subsequently serving as a Judge of the Court of Appeal of Belize since May 2022.
It was further noted, between 2008 and 2022, Justice Bulkan taught in the Faculty of Law of The University of the West Indies.

He was also an expert member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, serving as one of the Committee’s Vice Chairpersons from 2019 to 2022. He was elected in June 2023 to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for a four-year term and is currently serving as the Commission’s Second Vice-President.

The release added: “Justice Bulkan has published widely on indigenous rights, human rights, and constitutional law, including as sole author of ‘The Survival of Indigenous Rights in Guyana’ (2012) and a co-author of ‘Fundamentals of Caribbean Constitutional Law’ (first edition 2015 and second edition 2021). For his work in human rights, Justice Bulkan was conferred with the

Anthony Sabga Caribbean Award for Public and Civic Contributions in 2017 and was named a PANCAP/CARICOM Champion for Change in 2017.”
Further to this, the RJLSC, in announcing the appointment, stated that these appointments are made based solely on the merits of the applicants, including their expertise, integrity and dedication to justice.

Against this backdrop, it was disclosed that some 26 applications from Australia, Barbados, Canada, Cameroon, Fiji, Guyana, Jamaica, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saint Lucia, Sri Lanka, The United States of America, and Trinidad and Tobago were received.

However, five candidates were shortlisted for further consideration and were subsequently interviewed, with Justice Bulkan becoming the successful applicant appointed.
As such, he is expected to be sworn in as a judge of the Caribbean Court of Justice in October 2025.