Howard Campbell, Gleaner WriterFOLLOWING LAST Thursday's Privy Council ruling that stalled Jamaica's entry into the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), human rights group, Jamaicans For Justice (JFJ) says it will push ahead with an educational campaign to make citizens aware of the significance of the decision.
Dr. Carolyn Gomes, a director of JFJ, told The Sunday Gleaner Friday that while her organisation has held several public seminars and appeared on radio to sensitise Jamaicans on the implications of leaving the Privy Council, more needs to be done.
"We are putting together a media plan and once we complete that we'll cost it. Then it's left to find the funding because we are talking about millions of dollars," said Dr. Gomes.
Along with the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party, the Independent Council for Human Rights and the Jamaican Bar Association, JFJ challenged the passing of three government bills in Parliament last September that paved the way for Jamaica to join the CCJ.
They took their case to the Privy Council, which ruled in their favour, declaring the Jamaican Government's action as unconstitutional.
OPPOSED
Those opposed to the CCJ road map, including the JLP and JFJ, prefer going the route of a national referendum to decide whether Jamaica should join other Caribbean territories, such as Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, in the establishment of a regional court. But although the Government and their opponents have had passionate debates during the past three years, Dr. Gomes says many Jamaicans' knowledge of the CCJ/Privy Council issue remain limited.
"This (education drive) is really a joint responsibility between Government and civil society. It's important to keep people abreast of what's happening," she said.
In addition to radio broadcasts, JFJ has organised seminars in Kingston, Montego Bay and Mandeville to get its message across. Dr. Gomes said last year's meeting at the Montego Bay Civic Centre drew a "near full house", with most of the attendees being ordinary citizens. Since forming in the wake of the April, 1998 gas riots, JFJ has represented several persons from the inner city in high-profile cases. She says most of these persons have become members of the organisation and are familiar with the consequences of leaving the Privy Council.
Leonie Marshall, whose son Patrick Genus was shot and killed by policemen in Kingston on December 13, 1999, was one of the appellants on the suit that eventually got the support of Privy Council judges three days ago. Mr. Genus' case had been thrown out by the Supreme Court in May, 2003.
