The Honourable Sir Marston Gibson, Chief Justice of Barbados has expressed gratitude to the Judicial Reform and Institutional Strengthening (JURIST) Project for facilitating a collaborative workshop that brought together all stakeholders of the justice sector.
He was addressing participants at the opening ceremony of the second in a series of collaborative workshops geared towards building awareness, momentum and consensus for the JURIST Project’s Third Year Work Plan. The collaborative workshop was held from May 19-20, 2016 at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre in Barbados.
“There is a tendency to believe that the justice sector only means judges and magistrates, however, not much can be done without the Probation Department, the Prison and the Police among others. This workshop is a wonderful opportunity for all stakeholders to make the system as efficient as it can be,” he added.
Sir Marston urged all participants to take advantage of the discussions at the workshop so that they can come up with concrete ideas for the way forward in improving and strengthening the justice sector.
His Excellency Richard Hanley, High Commissioner of Canada to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean said that Canada’s programming to strengthen the rule of law fulfils part of their approximate US$488 million commitment of development assistance through the Caribbean Regional Development Program.
“We have been implementing this program since 2008-09, when we doubled our aid to the Caribbean, and it will run until 2019-20. At that point, we will look at what more we can do to help. The aim of the current program is to assist the region in becoming a more prosperous and integrated Caribbean Community able to generate sustainable economic growth, providing opportunity and security to its citizens,” he explained.
His Excellency noted that the JURIST Project was in keeping with Canada’s thrust to expand and enhance their human rights efforts to include the championing of peaceful pluralism and diversity.
