Model criminal code for OECS to be discussed in Grenada

ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada, Feb 3, CMC – A two-day consultation on a model criminal code for the sub-regional Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) as well as Bail, Evidence and Jury legislation in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) gets underway here on Monday.
It is being organised  by the Canadian government funded Improved Access to Justice in the Caribbean (IMPACT Justice) Project, in association with the Judicial Education Institute of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court.
The organisers said that the discussion of a harmonised Criminal Code is of special importance for the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC) because the current situation is that in each of the member states differences in the language creating offences make it difficult for judges, who move between the OECS from time to time, to efficiently deliver justice.
“It is expected that the discussions will lead to the creation of a harmonized Model Criminal Code with accompanying and similarly harmonized criminal law legislation for the consideration of governments within the OECS,” they said.
Among the participants attending the two-day event will be Dame Janice M. Pereira, the Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, as well as judges, magistrates, the directors of public prosecution and criminal defence lawyers from the nine-member OECS grouping.
The Canadian High Commissioner to Barbados and the OECS, Marie Legault, as well as Professor Velma Newton, Regional Project Director of the IMPACT will address the final day of the conference.