By Khadidja Ba
At the Memorial Service for Justice Désirée Bernard held at the St. George’s Cathedral on May 20th, 2024, she was hailed as a beacon of inspiration and support as well as a legal luminary.
For her services in improving the status of women in Guyana, Justice Bernard was awarded Guyana’s third highest honour – The Cacique Crown of Honour, and later the second highest honour – The Order of Roraima for her services as Head of the Judiciary of Guyana.
During her tribute, Chief Justice (ag) Roxane George remembered Justice Bernard as “a pioneer who imparted much impactful and insightful knowledge to everyone around her.” Justice George attributed her decision to join the Bench, albeit reluctantly to Justice Bernard.
“Looking back, I think Judge made it her mission to have me become a Judge, before she retired from the Judiciary of Guyana… I have absolutely no regrets in becoming a Judge and thank her for her tenacity in this regard. “Judge” as we called her, had a tremendous impact on us young women lawyers. As we know she founded the Guyana Association of Women Lawyers in 1987. Judge took us under her wing, mentoring us and sharing her knowledge and experience as well as guiding us on what was proper, for as you know, she was a person of elegance and decorum”, Justice George related.
Final respects were also shared by Chancellor of the Judiciary, Yonette Cummings-Edwards who quoted from Justice Bernard’s book Reflections and Opinions.
“There are occasions in one’s life when words are usually inadequate and inappropriate as a medium of expressing one’s feelings. Adopting those words indeed, I am of the view that in paying tribute to a legal icon, a daughter of the soil, an eminent Caribbean jurist, and words alone would be inappropriate as the medium and time would be wholly inadequate to deliver a tribute to her”, she said.
Cheryl Sampson of the National Congress of Women and the People’s National Congress Reform; along with Justice Nadia Kangaloo, Puisne Judge, Judiciary of Trinidad and Tobago from the Caribbean’s Association of Women Judges; Justice Winston Anderson representative of the Caribbean Court of Justice and the West Indies Cricket Board Disciplinary Committee also paid tribute to Justice Bernard. All spoke fondly of how Justice Bernard carried out her duties with grace, poise, wisdom and humility.
The eulogy was read by Nigel Hughes, attorney at law, who guided those in attendance through the life of Justice Bernard. From her early childhood years in Berbice as an only child born to Maude Baird and William Bernard, then through her secondary school years at the Bishops’ High School where she was in class with Shirley Field-Ridley who later became Minister of Education and Hazel Campayne, later Head Mistress of St. Rose’s High. Her petition to the Bar was presented by Fred Wills.
Hughes remembered fondly a statement made by Justice Bernard. “Perhaps one of her most poignant statements made by her at the time for her ascension to the bench was contained in her reply and thank you.
‘There is a great disadvantage to being the first in any field of endeavour, there is no precedent, no rules, no examples to follow, one has to strike out on one’s own and become a trailblazer. Thereby leaving a path for others to follow’”, she had said.
During her long career, Justice Bernard was the first woman to be appointed as a Judge in the Supreme Court of Guyana in 1980, the first woman to be appointed to the Court of Appeal in 1992, the first woman to be appointed Chief Justice not just in Guyana but the Common-wealth Caribbean in 1996, the first woman to be appointed Chancellor of the Judiciary for Guyana and the Commonwealth Caribbean in 2001 and also the first woman Judge appointed to the Caribbean Court of Justice in 2005.
In 2005, she was the recipient of the Caribbean Community’s Triennial Award for Women for her contribution to women’s affairs and the administration of justice and in 2007 was conferred with the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws by the University of the West Indies. In 2013 she completed research on the Compatibility (or Controversy) of the Caribbean Court of Justice with the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas under a research fellowship offered by the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in London, England. In 2011 Justice Bernard was appointed a judge of the Administration Tribunal of the Inter-American Development Bank. She served as its Vice-President in 2014, and later as its President in 2015.
