Dear Editor,
Two government Ministers were reported to have said that Guyana is a sovereign country (whatever that means) and that the CCJ cannot instruct Guyana how to run its affairs (including holding elections or replacing the chairman of Gecom). The Ministers are wrong and the statements were made out of complete ignorance.
Although I am not a lawyer, I am versed in constitutional matters and the concept of sovereignty. When I was doing doctoral studies in political science, my field of specialization was international relations. But students were also mandated to take doctoral courses in each of at least three of five sub-fields. Two sub-fields I did were American constitutional law and international law. And when I undertook graduate studies in educational management to become an Administrator in Higher Education, one requirement was courses in American Educational Law that focused heavily on Education Constitutional Law. I also taught constitutional law. Thus, I am knowledgeable on constitutional and international legal matters. I can say without any fear of being contradicted that the CCJ has sovereignty over Guyana because of a treaty the government signed (the PNC government at that) in 1973.
Contrary to what the Ministers feel and say, the fact is, for the record, the CCJ is Guyana’s final court of appeal. The CCJ is part of Guyana’s sovereignty that happens to be located in another territory – not different from say when the UK Privy Council was Guyana’s final court of appeal. So those two Ministers must be reprimanded for their statements – words of defiance against the court and should be sanctioned.
Can you imagine government officers telling the Privy Council it had no jurisdiction over Guyana when the court had standing before the dictator Forbes Burnham broke the link without legitimate approval?
Yours faithfully,
Dr. Vishnu Bisram
