ANALYSIS
Conclusion The process of constitution making in Barbados since the announcement that the country would transition to a republic has been nothing short of piecemeal with much depending on the CRC’s Report, its draft Constitution, and ultimately, the response of the Cabinet of Ministers and Parliament to the proposals, whatever the merit of such proposals. In a recent public lecture, Honourable Justice Jefferson Cumberbatch, Justice of the Barbados Court of Appeal , stated that the Barbadian society will be the draftsmen of their new Republican Constitution. This may sound good theoretically. Practically speaking, however, the final arbiter of the substance and form of this new Constitution will not be the Barbadian society at large or even the CRC. The final arbiter will be the body charged with making and re-making the Constitution of Barbados, namely, the Parliament of Barbados . Therefore, what this new Republican Constitution will look like, or if the country will have any at all, will largely be dictated by the extent of political will to effect fruitful constitutional reform. l Cynthia Barrow-Giles is a Professor of Constitutional Governance and Politics at the Cave Hill campus of The University of the West Indies where she has also served as Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Head of the Department of Government, Sociology and Social Work. Rico Yearwood is Head of Public Law & Legal Research Department, CARICOM Attorneys- at-Law. “This article was commissioned by International IDEA and was originally posted on ConstitutionNet, International IDEA’s online knowledge platform supporting constitution builders globally. Learn more at ConstitutionNet.org.”
much optimistic anticipation, it may equally be seen as a cause for a great deal of skepticism. Limitations of Commissions established under the Commissions of Inquiry Act Commissions of inquiry are notorious for being seen as politically expedient, organised to avoid difficult and contentious matters. Indeed, as a commission of inquiry is simply a fact-finding body appointed by the Government, such commissions cannot enforce any of the recommendations made even after a rigorous process of consultation and drafting instructions. The attendant consequence is that all or a substantial number of its recommendations can be rejected by the Government, or even if accepted, the Government may or may not choose to pursue any further action on the matter. In that respect, the promise of meaningful constitutional reform may remain unfulfilled. For instance, out of the 64 recommendations submitted by the 1979 Cox Commission in its report, no more than three were implemented. Correspondingly, a vast majority of the recommendations made by the 1998 Forde Commission were not enacted. Nevertheless, this is not limited to commissions set up under Commissions of Inquiry Acts, as the Saint Lucia Constitution Reform Commission shows – a Commission which was established by and under a distinct statutory instrument. It took the Government of Saint Lucia five years to discuss the mammoth report with its most consequential recommendations for reform being rejected by parliamentarians without the benefit of public consultation. To date not a single recommendation has been acted upon. Put simply, in these contexts, more often than not, Constitutional Reform Commissions are virtually toothless.
Rastafari … has come and established themselves as an integral part of the society … We feel very slighted, and we look at the table and we see almost everyone else being represented at the table: Muslims represented, education represented, colonial Christianity represented … I am glad that all of these other facets of the society are represented, but that means that Rastafari should also be represented.” Other groups and communities whose representation were strikingly excluded from the membership of the CRC include the main opposing political parties and the academic and LGBTQIA communities. Critics contend that the CRC could have
been more reflective of an inclusive microcosm of the Barbadian society
had there been an open and democratic consultation with the parliament and civil society. The notable absence of such crucial representation and democratic consultation could give rise to the public perception that the CRC is, for all intents and purposes, a political and not a technical CRC. O verall, however, while the consultation process will be rooted in deliberation and largely advisory, it is anticipated that the process of constitution making will be defined by extensive public consultations reflective of the acceptance of the importance of participatory and democratic constitution-making processes. While the Attorney-General noted that in the process of constitution making, “[t]here are to be no sacred cows,” this does not necessarily indicate there will be large-scale fundamental changes to the current system. This is especially as the Attorney-General referenced a 2005 draft Constitution, prepared by the Prime Minister when she was Attorney-General, as a starting point for the Commission, which did not conceive of significant departures from the previous political system and conventions. Therefore, while Barbados’s Republican constitutional reform project is a cause for
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