CARICOM Staff Administrative Tribunal: To Be Established in 2016 / 2017

BETWEEN MASTER AND SERVANT, IT IS FREEDOM WHICH OPPRESSES AND LAW WHICH SETS FREE:

HENRY LACORDAIRE
The absence of appropriate machinery for the settlement of staff disputes within Caribbean regional organizations (disputes that cannot normally be settled in the national courts) is a widely recognized and on-going problem. The CCJ, as an international organization, supports efforts to establish a regional administrative tribunal and towards this end is prepared to collaborate, as far as appropriate, with the CARICOM Secretariat and with the other CARICOM institutions in first of all convening a regional meeting of institutions.

Already the International Labour Organization (ILO) has offered its assistance to the Court in this regard. The ILO has successfully established a tribunal for the ventilation of employment disputes at international organisations (www.ilo.org/public/english/tribunal).

There has been widespread acceptance of the tribunal’s assistance from over 50 International organisations such as the World Health Organisation (WHO), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), World Trade Organisation (WTO), World International

Property Office (WIPO). Their acceptance extends to international courts as well such as the Court of Justice of the European Free Trade Association (ETA), International Criminal Court (ICC), Permanent Court of Arbitration and the African Caribbean Pacific Group of States. The CCJ is therefore in good company should it choose to explore potential synergies with the ILO Tribunal.

In an effort to spurn further discussions on the settlement of staff disputes at international organisations, CALCA proposes to convene a one-day public seminar in the margins of the regional meeting involving a wide cross section of stakeholders to consider and discuss the establishment of the regional administrative tribunal under the auspices of the ILO. It is anticipated that the seminar will be held in the first half of 2015.