The Leader of SVG Green Party was in the public gallery of the House of Assembly on the 22nd March 2007, when the short-sighted ULP government related all the stages of a law in the Criminal Procedure code to give the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) a right of appeal against essentially all the decisions in Magistrates Courts in criminal cases.

Effectively, this makes all courts powerless and hands over power to the ULP government. Let’s not forget those words of Magistrate Churaman, in the historical case against the General Secretary of SVG Green Party, which echoed around the whole Caribbean, “…strangle the doctrine of free speech”.

An SVG Green Party government will repeal the Criminal Procedure code which gives the DPP a right of appeal against essentially all the decisions in Magistrates Courts in criminal cases. The SVG Green Party will also repeal the legislation which gives the DPP a right of appeal against judges’ decisions in the High Court. We in SVG Green Party strongly believe that persons with integrity are appointed as High Court Judges and Magistrates.

The ULP regime wants to control the courts and have a dictatorship. Courts must have independence from government. This is a direct attack to our freedom of speech and a massive threat to democracy. Democracy is fundamental for an endurable life and sustainable development in SVG. This law will take away proper democracy in SVG – a democracy which if lost, will be hard to regain. It sets a dangerous course for our SVG, which could lead to dictatorship by the ULP regime.

The United Nations has endorsed the essential importance of an independent judiciary by its adoption of the Basic Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary at its Seventh Congress in 1985. Each member state is expected to guarantee the independence of its judiciary in its constitution or the laws of the country. The independence of the judiciary must be guaranteed by the State. It is the duty of all governmental and other institutions to respect and observe the independence of the judiciary.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights enshrines the principles of the right to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal established by law. There should not be any inappropriate or unwarranted interference with the judicial process, nor should judicial decisions by the courts be subject to revision.

The history of the judiciary around the world demonstrates that the greatest danger of interference comes from other government institutions or political parties. In criminal law trials, the dispute obviously involves the state, which is why this law is even more dangerous. It is the duty of the Government to respect and observe the independence of the judiciary.

SVG Green Party will also repeal the Commodities and Trades Bill as it is having negative impact on the declining SVG economy, owing to the tyrannical, centralisation mentality of the ULP regime. All the shallow celebrations of the ULP regime cannot hide the fact that the ULP economy and people’s livelihoods are going downhill.

SVG cannot sustain tyranny and cannot survive without justice.