High Court allows challenge to government’s bid to strike out genocide case
The High Court has ruled that a local pro-Palestinian organisation can challenge a move made by the government to have a claim for enforcement of the local Genocide Act struck out.
Justice Dr Herbert Patrick Wells, who presided in the High Court matter, ordered that the Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration (CMPI), through its General Secretary, David Denny, be given leave to file written submissions in reply to the Attorney General’s application to strike out the claim for enforcement.
He also ordered all parties to file written submissions on the issue of the court’s jurisdiction to hear the claim, and the issue of the claimant’s locus standi, by July 18.
The CMPI had filed a written submission last Friday in reply to an application made by the fourth defendant, the Attorney General, to strike out the claim for the Act’s enforcement. The group has requested that the Supreme Court enforce the Genocide Act of Barbados to show juridical recognition of the genocide in the Gaza.
Denny also submitted a request, through attorney Lalu Hanuman, that the court make a declaration to stop the participators in genocide from entering Barbados and to force their prosecution by the Director of Public Prosecution, the second defendant.
The CMPI is contending that the Gaza genocide and its atrocities are being facilitated by technology in a way that could not have been conceived of when the Genocide Convention was drafted, or even when the Convention was brought into the local laws.
“The use of technology (artificial intelligence and drones) to kill civilians on a daily basis, even children in food queues, is unprecedented,” the movement submitted.
“This is one of the reasons that civil courts must urgently intervene to denounce the Gaza Genocide. The Supreme Court of Barbados ought to enforce the Genocide Act of Barbados to show juridical recognition of the genocide, and to stop the participators in genocide from entering Barbados and to force their prosecution by the Director of Public Prosecutions.”
Hanuman is arguing that the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was adopted into local law by Barbados in 1985, under the terms of the Genocide Act Cap. 133 A, and the Convention is therefore a part of the local laws of Barbados.
The Genocide Convention defines genocide as any of five “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.” These five acts include killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group, preventing births, and forcibly transferring children out of the group. Victims are targeted because of their real or perceived membership of a group, not randomly.
“Our Supreme Court of Judicature Act, Cap. 117A, grants the Court unlimited original jurisdiction in civil matters. This jurisdiction includes the authority to hear applications for declaratory relief, especially in matters of public law, international obligations, and issues of grave public interest—such as genocide. The questions for decision in this matter involve points of general public Importance,” according to the submission.
Citing the 2005 Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) appeal case of Barbados Rediffusion Services Limited versus respondent Asha Merchandani Ram Merchandani McDonald Farms Limited, Hanuman said the court had declared that “a judge, dealing with an application to strike out, should start off by reminding himself that to strike out a party’s case, and so deny him a hearing on the merits, is an extreme step not to be lightly taken.”
The attorney submitted that the High Court should not strike out the claim for the reasons set out.
“The claim is not intended to, in any way, abuse the process of this honourable court,” he said, adding that it was brought “to compel the defendants to enforce treaty and domestic legal obligations and to uphold human rights. The best way we can honour our abused ancestors is by standing up for human rights globally”.
“We in the Caribbean were in the vanguard of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. We should be in the vanguard against apartheid in Palestine and the genocide in Gaza,” he added. (EJ)
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