Bar Association deplores attacks on CCJ, attempts to interfere with justice

The Bar Council of the Guyana Bar Association today condemned attacks on the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) and attempts to interfere with the administration of justice.

With the CCJ due to hand down an important decision in relation to Guyana’s elections on Wednesday, there have been stepped up attacks on it which have warned against a certain decision being made. The attempts to influence have gone as far as the publication of a full-page advertisement in the Trinidad Guardian newspaper.

A statement by the Bar Council follows:

STATEMENT BY THE BAR COUNCIL OF THE BAR ASSOCIATION OF GUYANA CALLING FOR RESPECT OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE

With legal proceedings presently engaging the attention of the Caribbean Court of Justice, the Council of the Bar Association has observed that parties on all sides of the pending litigation, including parties outside of the litigation have resorted to multiple forms of media to provide comments and information to advance their respective cases. This conduct is unreservedly condemned. Of even greater offence is the use of social media by members of the society to launch unnecessary, malicious and contemptuous attacks on sitting members of our Apex Court.

The Bar Council denounces and censures all conduct and actions regarding pending proceedings which:

(i) are calculated to interfere with the administration of justice;

(ii) are intended to prejudice the administration of justice;

(iii) are made with the deliberate intention of interfering with the course of justice;

(iv) are made carelessly or negligently without due regard for the integrity and processes associated with the pending proceedings;

(v) create a serious risk that the course of justice may be interfered with;

(vi) prejudge the matters in issue before the Court; and

(vii) undermine public confidence in the Court and or administration of justice.

The course of justice and the administration of justice in legal proceedings are critical pillars on which the rule of law rests. The pillars of justice are intended to stand robustly after many of us are no longer of this earth, let not our conduct today cause harm to the administration of justice that it will take generations to remedy.

The Bar Council has taken notice of such aforesaid undesirable conduct in recent times. The continuous, pervasive and escalated actions observed in both Guyana and most recently by way of a full page advertisement in the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian of the 4th July, 2020, have made it necessary for the Bar Council to speak. We call on all to hold their voices, respect the processes of the administration of justice and thereby cease and desist your injurious conduct.