<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCourts, like hospitals and airports, are special-purpose buildings. But, when it comes to the courts, this fact seems to be lost on those tasked with providing them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chief Justice of the Eastern\nCaribbean Supreme Court Dame Janice Pereira made the comment on Monday as she\naddressed the ceremony in Antigua and Barbuda to mark the official opening of\nthe new law year on Monday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chief Justice Pereira was lamenting\nthe delay of budget approval for the new year and the state of buildings\nhousing courts of law in the sub-region. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI once more call on the executives\nof our governments, across the region, to do more than provide lip service\nsupport to the Court. The court has been made to operate for several months now\nwithout an approved budget and with promises not kept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe fact that a little time, just once in the space of a year, to address funding for the court seems elusive, it speaks volumes about where the judiciary is pegged, somewhere on the bottom rung of the ladder,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Chief Justice said the \u201ccontinued chronic failures\u201d to provide\nadequate funding for the operations of the Court prevents the Court from\nputting strategic plans into action. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe reforms and enhancements to current court\nprocesses and procedures and the addition of new ones coupled with capacity\nbuilding amongst our judicial officers and court staff can only go so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf we fail to appreciate our human resources and if the doors of our courts are closed or our physical court facilities cannot support our courts optimized scheduling of matters, or where basic facilities fail to be provided at all then all the reforms, no matter how well-intended, come to naught,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chief Justice Pereira said that as the new decade begins, the court is still faced with the \u201ccrippling problem of inadequate physical court facilities in this region.\u201dShe said judicial officers and court staff are expected to work, and the public is expected to conduct court business, \u201cin buildings that have not been designed to accommodate a court \u2013 buildings with air quality issues, buildings in ill-suited locations and buildings without proper accessibility.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEvery year since I have been Chief Justice and I have had the opportunity to address you in a forum such as this, I have sung the same refrain. Indeed, Chief Justices before me have done the same. I have implored our governments to do their part to provide suitable and adequate court facilities and to fulfill their mandates to the judicial branch of Government. After all, it is a co-equal branch of government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is time to stop making promises but instead fulfill them.\nIt is time that attention be paid to the courts and the indispensable functions\nthey perform rather than the treatment endured year after year after year as if\nthe courts are a nuisance afterthought,\u2019\u201d Chief Justice\nPereira said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cCourts, like hospitals and airports, are special-purpose buildings. But, when it comes to the courts, this fact seems to be lost on those tasked with providing them.\u201d Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court Dame Janice Pereira made the comment on Monday as she addressed the ceremony in Antigua and Barbuda to mark the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":8717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-local-news","category-regional-and-international-news"],"yoast_head":"\n