The Guyana Government will be looking to pass a number of new legislation next year that will not only see the abolishment of Preliminary Inquiries (PIs) in the Magistrate’s Court but also the toughening of domestic violence acts.
This was revealed by Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister, Anil Nandlall, S.C., during his weekly programme – Issues in the News. He disclosed Government has passed an unprecedented 25 new pieces of legislations in the National Assembly this year.
“That must be the most legislation passed by any Parliament in the Caribbean… That is an average of two pieces of legislations per month – that is a record by any standard… We would’ve doubled any other country in the Caribbean with that rate of enactment of laws. We don’t plan to slow down next year. In fact, we will be accelerate our agenda for next year,” the Attorney General asserted.
Going forward, the country’s legislative agenda will see a slew of other new laws being introduced and existing ones being updated in 2023.
According to Nandlall, Government will be moving to reduce the time persons facing capital offence charges spent on remand while awaiting trials in the High Court. This will see the removal of Preliminary Inquiries being conducted in the Magistrates’ Courts.
“Too many times, years are spent waiting for a Preliminary Inquiry into capital offences to be concluded in the Magistrate’s Court whereas most of the Commonwealth has abolished it and they do Paper Committals. So, you go straight from the Magistrate’s Court to the Judge and Jury [in the High Court] for your trials. It makes no sense having you wait three, four years in the Magistrate’s Court and on remand in the prison,” he said.
With this change, however, the AG recognised that it will cause a build up of cases in the High Court. But he not that efforts will be have to be undertaken to address that backlog that will be created.
“We simply can’t continue with Preliminary Inquiries anymore. It’s outdated and the world has moved on. We’re going to move in the direction of abolishing it as almost every country has done in the Caribbean and most of the Commonwealth,” he posited.
In addition, steps will also be taken to strengthen Guyana’s plea-bargaining legislation. The Attorney General explained that despite having a modern Plea-Bargaining legislation, it does not seem to work hence Government has commissioned a review of the law.
“Tell us what’s the problem and why is it not working? Why is it that the defence and the prosecutor can’t sit down and work out an arrangement in some cases, where it’s appropriate to do so? That’s happening in all over the world and it saves a lot of judicial time. It saves a lot of time in the criminal justice system,” Nandlall stated.
Another major piece of legislation to be rolled out next year includes a modern Family Violence Bill, which is being fine-tuned.
The Attorney General pointed out that domestic violence – especially family violence and interpersonal violence – continues to wreak havoc in Guyana. The country’s current Domestic Violence legislation dates back to the late 1990s and whilst that law has somewhat worked, AG Nandlall contended that the rampant prevalence of domestic violence in the country warrants much more action to be taken.
On this note, he revealed that Government is looking at models being used by other countries including the State of New York in crafting this new modern Family Violence Bill to tackle this societal scourge.
“The Domestic Violence Bill was civil in nature, this [Family Violence Bill will be] civil and criminal. The Domestic Violence Act, for example, you get restraining orders alone but the persons who are restrained still want to kill [and sometimes, do] kill the victim. Here, you have powers under this Family Violence Bill to lock up people, keep them on remand and charge them with criminal offences. So, it’s a merger of civil and criminal law – a departure from the Domestic Violence law and an improvement. That is the deficiency of the Domestic Violence Act, it lacks penal sanctions,” he stressed.
Other major pieces legislations to be rolled out next includes the Arbitration Bill, Patients Personal Information Bill, Waste Management Bill and also overhaul the Sexual Offences Act.
Further, a new Public Health Bill is also being worked on. According to the Attorney General, Guyana’s Public Health law is archaic. He pointed out that these inadequacies came to the fore at the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
“We always knew that we had to work on it but after COVID, it became clear that we have to accelerate efforts. This is a massive undertaking. It’s a whole new public health infrastructure that has to be built in every region in this country. That is a work in progress. It’s going to take time and it’s a huge undertaking,” the attorney general added.
