‘Please, don’t reverse Roodal judgment’

QUEEN’S COUNSEL Keir Starmer warned the Privy Council judges yesterday that if they reverse their own decision in the Balkissoon Roodal case, then Trinidad and Tobago will resume hangings which will be in clear breach of its obligations under the United Nations and Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Starmer spent all day, seeking to convince the Law Lords that the Roodal decision (delivered on November 20, 2003) was the correct one. Starmer, who is on the record representing TT and Barbados, made submissions regarding international law and the obligations faced by TT, Barbados, and Jamaica to treaties.  The British QC pointed out that TT became a member of the United Nations on September 18, 1962, and a member of the OAS on March 14, 1967.

‘Trinidad and Tobago bound itself to uphold the rights and obligations in the OAS Charter and the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, including the right to life and the prohibition on inhuman punishment, which has been interpreted by the Inter-American Commission as prohibiting the imposition of mandatory death sentences.’ Starmer said that one of the provisions of the treaty signed by TT with the UN was that there be no death penalty carried on any citizen of the twin-island republic. He said this will conform with the Roodal decision where there will no longer be the mandatory death penalty, but the final decision will rest with the trial judge as to what sentence to impose. Counsel said TT also acceded to the Optional Protocol giving individuals the right to petition the UN Human Rights Committee, but on May 26, 1998, it withdrew from the Optional Protocol and then on the same day immediately re-acceded with a reservation purporting to deny any prisoner under sentence of death from petitioning the Human Rights Committee.

Starmer pointed out that in November 1999 in considering the petition of convicted TT killer Rawle Kennedy, the UN Human Rights Committee concluded that TT’s reservation was invalid. He said the Committee considered the merits of the case and concluded that this reservation was against the object and purpose of the Optional Protocol. He pointed out that TT again lodged a further withdrawal from the Optional Protocol on March 27, 2000. Starmer said the Inter-American Court in a case involving three Trinidadians (Hillaire, Constantine and Benjamin), found the death penalty to be incompatible with the obligations of TT under the treaty. (Hilaire was convicted with two other persons, including a woman, of murdering Alexander Jordan at Cumuto, while Constantine was found guilty of murdering his mother, a nurse, and burying her body in the basement of their house in Belmont).

Starmer said TT denounced the American Commission on Human Rights on May 26, 1998. He said the denunciation took effect one year later. But he was quick to point out that the withdrawal will not affect any of the appellants before the Privy Council. He said TT withdrew because the Inter-American Commission could not give assurances that capital cases would be completed within the time frame that the Government of TT said was dictated by the decision of Pratt and Morgan in 1993. In that case, the Privy Council said it would be cruel to execute killers who had been on Death Row for more than five years. ‘‘Trinidad and Tobago remains a member of the OAS and is thus bound to uphold the rights and obligations in the OAS Charter and the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man including the right to life and the prohibition on inhuman punishment which have been interpreted by the Inter-American Commission as prohibiting the imposition of mandatory death sentences.