News Releases

New Law Faculty at UWI to help train police in human rights and juvenile justice

For Release Upon Receipt - April 17, 2014

St. Augustine


ST. AUGUSTINE, Trinidad and Tobago – The newly instituted Faculty of Law at The University of the West Indies (UWI) St. Augustine Campus hopes to create closer links with the government agencies with a goal of training the police in human rights and juvenile justice, HIV, anti-discrimination law and labour law. This was revealed by Dean of the Faculty, Professor Rose-Marie Belle Antoine, in her opening remarks at its formal launch on Tuesday, April 15. The ceremony took place at the campus’ Daaga Auditorium.

To support this goal, Professor Antoine revealed that the faculty is in the process of concluding a Memorandum of Understanding with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). The IACHR is a principal and autonomous organ of the Organization of American States, whose mission is to promote and protect human rights in the American hemisphere.

The new faculty, instituted at the St. Augustine Campus in August 2012, forms part of an approved proposal at the University Council to establish three full faculties of law in Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago. Since August 2012, students have been able to complete all three years of the Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree programme at the St. Augustine Campus. Come August, the Faculty will also offer a new university based, regional, LLM programme. Instructed by all three campuses, the programme will see a sharing of resources and courses through a combination of face to face and distance teaching.

The Faculty will eventually be housed at The UWI’s South Campus, a 120 acre site in the vicinity of the Debe High School. Professor Antoine sees great benefit in the new Faculty of Law being located in a rural area. “We should not forget that the great universities that we emulate, such as Oxford and Cambridge, started off in little known rural villages, not in cities,” she said.

The Hon. Kamla Persad-Bissessar SC, MP, Prime Minister, the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago delivered the feature address, which also saw a keynote address by the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles Michael Dennis Byron, President, Caribbean Court of Justice and remarks from President of the Law Association, Seenath Jairam, S.C. Campus Principal and Pro Vice-Chancellor, Professor Clement Sankat, delivered the welcome address.

The 2013 St. Augustine Campus’ graduation ceremonies saw the first graduates from the Faculty of Law: the first cohort to complete all three years of the programme locally. Prior to 2011, only the first year of the programme was offered at St. Augustine.

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About The UWI

Since its inception in 1948, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has evolved from a fledgling college in Jamaica with 33 students to a full-fledged, regional University with well over 40,000 students. Today, UWI is the largest, most longstanding higher education provider in the Commonwealth Caribbean, with four campuses in Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Open Campus. The UWI has faculty and students from more than 40 countries and collaborative links with 160 universities globally; it offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Food & Agriculture, Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science and Technology and Social Sciences. UWI’s seven priority focal areas are linked closely to the priorities identified by CARICOM and take into account such over-arching areas of concern to the region as environmental issues, health and wellness, gender equity and the critical importance of innovation.

(Please note that the proper name of the university is The University of the West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.)

 

 

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