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UWI TODAY
– SUNDAY 6th JULY, 2014
OUR REGION
Movement of
Our People
CCJ, Shanique Myrie, Community Law
and Our Caribbean Civilisation
My reflections leadme
to conclude thatmanyGovernments,
individual Ministers of Governments, and Immigration
Officials across the CARICOM region do not as yet
appreciate the significance of the Myrie judgment to the
freedom of movement of Community nationals and the
CSME.
I so conclude given certain public statements fromsome
Ministers of Government and public officials at the time of
the judgment in October 2013 and subsequently.
At the Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference of
Heads of CARICOM in St. Vincent and the Grenadines in
March 2013, there was a specific item on the agenda of the
implications of theMyrie judgment. First, since decisions of
Conference are now explicitly accorded the status of being a
vital part of Community law, great care has to be exercised
in the formulating of Conference decisions particularly
those which touch and concern the rights of Community
nationals.
Secondly, CARICOM governments have an obligation
to ensure that domestic law be put in conformity with
Community law since to the extent of any inconsistency on
any relevant matter, Community law would prevail.
Thirdly, immigration and other border control officials
must incorporate the Myrie guidelines provided by the
CCJ at the points of entry to Member States of CARICOM.
Immense education of these officials and alterations of pre-
existing domestic regulations and procedures to confirm
with Community law, are urgently required.
Fourthly, the implication of the Myrie judgment for
Haitians seeking entry into other Member States is yet to be
satisfactorily addressed by the Governments. After all, Haiti,
is now as “bona fide” signatory to the CSME, as distinct
from, for example, the Bahamas. Haitians are thus entitled
to all the rights which appertain under Community law to
“the freedom of movement”
of Community nationals. Haiti,
however, has a population of ten million persons, most of
whom do not speak English. What is the likely impact of
these facts on St. Kitts andNevis with a population of 50,000
or on St. Vincent and the Grenadines with a population
of 110,000, or indeed on Trinidad and Tobago with a
population of 1.2 million?
Fifthly, the Myrie judgment opens up the CARICOM’s
Member States to all Community nationals, thus giving life
andmeaning to regional integration. It is this fact which has
excited many who had hitherto considered CARICOM a
jaundiced entity in which only especial categories of persons
are privileged.
Sixthly, there is a controversial and problematic legal
issue of the machinery for the enforcement of the decisions
of the CCJ, although I am of the view that the solution
already exists in our legal systems.
The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS)
through its Revised Treaty of Basseterre establishing the
OECS Economic Union of June 2010, and its decisions
thereunder, have gone much further than CARICOM on
the matter of freedom of movement of persons. Article 3
(c) of the Protocol of Eastern Caribbean Economic Union
states emphatically:
“3. To achieve the objectives set out in Article 2, the
activities of the Protocol Member States shall include under
the conditions and timing set out in this Protocol
The abolition, as between Protocol Member States, of
the obstacles to the free movement of persons, services,
and capital.”
[The seven Protocol Member States are Antigua and
Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts and
Nevis, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The
other two members of the broad OECS entity, namely
Anguilla, and the British Virgin Islands are not Protocol
Member States of the OECS]
This is an excerpt from the third Distinguished Open Lecture hosted by The UWI on June 17 as part of its ongoing series focusing on CARICOM.
For the full text, please visit our website at
B y D r . T h e H o n . R a l p h E . G o n s a l v e s
Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines
THE FALL-OUT OF THE MYRIE JUDGMENT
