Legal Report by the Hon. Attorney General Rhondalee Braithwaite Knowles OBE KC on the ceremonial sitting to mark the Opening of the Supreme Court of the Turks and Caicos Islands for the Year 2024
ATTORNEY GENERAL’S CHAMBERS
Legal Report by the Hon. Attorney General Rhondalee Braithwaite Knowles OBE KC on the ceremonial sitting to mark the Opening of the Supreme Court of the Turks and Caicos Islands for the Year 2024
May it please you my Lady Honourable Chief Justice of the Turks and Caicos Islands Mrs. Justice Mabel Agyemang
My Lady, the Honourable Ms. Justice Tanya Lobban-Jackson
My Lords, the Honourable Justice Mr. Anthony Gruchot; the Honourable Justice Mr. Chris Selochan; the Honourable Justice Mr. David Baptiste
Introduction and Protocol – My Lady Chief Justice, it is with great pleasure that I rise to address your Ladyship to move the motion for the ceremonial sitting marking the Opening of the Supreme Court of the Turks and Caicos Islands for the year 2023 standing in the company of my fellow members of the legal fraternity
My Lady, please permit me to recognize the presence of the many specially invited guests who have joined us today:
Her Excellency the Governor Dileeni Daniel-Selvaratnam
The Honourable Premier, Hon. C Washington Misick
The Honourable Speaker of the House of Assembly, Hon. Gordon Burton
Her Excellency, the Deputy Governor, Anya Williams
The Honourable Deputy Premier, Hon. Erwin Jay Saunders
Hon. Honourable Cabinet Ministers of the Turks and Caicos Islands Government
The Honourable Leader of the Opposition Hon. Edwin Astwood
Rt. Hon. Sir Declan Morgan PC
The Honourable Chairperson and Members of the Judicial Service Commission (attending virtually) Former Justice of Appeal of Jamaica Hillary Phillips CD, KC, Former Chief Justice of Jamaica Zaila McCalla OJ, Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court the Hon. Dame Janice Pereira DBE
Acting President of the Court of Appeal, The Honourable Justice of Appeal K. Neville Adderley
The Honourable Justice of Appeal Mr. Stanley John (attending virtually)
The Honourable Justice of Appeal Mr. Bernard Turner (attending virtually)
The Honourable Justice of Appeal Mr. Michael Hylton (attending virtually)
His Honour Joylon Hatmin Chief Magistrate
Her Honour, Mrs. Oreika Selver-Gardiner Resident Magistrate
Her Honour, Ms. Mickia Mills - Coroner
Her Honour, Ms. Patricia Arana Ag. Resident Magistrate
Mr. Narendra Lalbeharry Registrar of the Supreme Court
The President of the Bar Council Mrs. Tremmaine Harvey
The Doyen of the Bar Mr. Ariel Misick KC
Acting Director of Public Prosecutions – Dr. Angela Brooks
Acting Commissioner of Police Mr. Rodney Adams
Superintendent and Deputy Superintendent of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Mr. Michael Woodbine and Mr. Raymond Grant (Attending virtually)
Director of Social Development Ms. Tiffany Thomas-Browne
Director of Rehabilitation and Community Services Mr. Jaron Harvey
Former Director of Public Prosecutions Mr. Eugene Otuonye KC
Former Chief Secretary Mrs. Cynthia Astwood
Canon Mark Kendall and Rev. Desiree Johnson
Distinguished invited guests
My Lady, in moving this motion, I wish to make some brief remarks on 2023 and what is planned for the year ahead.
My Lady, in 2023 my legislative drafting division delivered 32 Ordinances and 82 pieces of subsidiary legislation in accordance with the Government’s legislative agenda. Of those 119 pieces of work, 37% related to Finance and financial compliance, 13% related to Immigration and Border control with another 13% related to the Tourism sector, 12% related to the justice delivery, 8% related to Home Affairs with the remainder accounted for under Health, Education, the Legislature and Lands.
Some notable pieces of legislation –
- The Agriculture Regulation Ordinance 2023 consolidated the law on agriculture and established the National Agriculture and Food Security Board to advise on the development of an agriculture and food security plan for the Islands and to monitor the Agro-Incentive Programme established under the Department of Agriculture.
- The Cemeteries Ordinance 2023 provides a comprehensive framework for the establishment, administration and maintenance of public and private cemeteries in the Islands to ensure that the public have access to cemeteries which are properly structured, well maintained, accessible and where plots are protected and related activities.
- The Crown Land (Residential Conditional Purchase Lease) (Arrears and Mesne Profit) (Amnesty) Ordinance 2023 established an amnesty period of two years to facilitate the recommendations of the Crown Land Review Report to increase home ownership through regularizing residential conditional purchase leases and writing-off accrued arrears and mesne profit.
- The Turks and Caicos Island Tourist Board (Dissolution) Ordinance 2023 dissolved the Tourist Board and repealed the 1990 Tourism Ordinance to achieve a new policy objective of improving the management and regulation of the tourism ecosystem in the Islands.
- The Destination Management Fee Ordinance 2023 as part of the new policy shift, introduced a destination management fee of $10 collected from all arriving passengers to be used for the protection of the environment, the promotion of sustainable tourism, the recovery, rehabilitation and maintenance of historical and cultural heritage, the support of education and training, the maintenance and development of tourist sites and the marketing of the Islands.
- The Tourism Regulation and Licensing Ordinance revoked the 1978 Tourist Accommodation (Licensing) Ordinance to establish a new Tourism Regulation Department to improve the licensing process, and the supervision and regulation of current and future premises and tourism services.
In the year ahead, work will continue on wide ranging proposals to improve the legislative framework around Immigration and Border security given the existential threats arising from irregular migration and to strengthen law enforcement through multi-agency initiatives to combat the impacts of transnational and firearms crimes.
Constitutional reform: My Lady, instructed by the Hon. Premier and the Hon. Leader of the Opposition and working with a Constitutional expert, Sir Jeffrey Jowell KC, I have led the nearly concluded negotiations with the UKG seeking constitutional reform seeking to realise their bipartisan vision for a Constitution reflecting the modern, mature relationship that exists between the UK and the TCI. As part of those reforms it is expected that Constitutional recognition of the role of the Chief Justice and advancements in the framework around the judicial administration as well as the police administration will be agreed to aid justice delivery and promote increased respect for the rule of law.
My Commercial division produced 166 agreements and 253 legal opinions. Notably, the Government prioritized efforts to promote e-government by digitizing key systems and services. One of the first of these to proceed to contract stage is the Electronic Procurement, a designed and built digital process for submission and review of business cases, evaluation of tenders, reporting and management. The Land Registry Digitization contract will create a digital repository to host all land registry instruments, records, and other documents that will shorten the time for retrieval and increase record security and integrity. The E Gates system for border entry will see the use of biometric data for entry into the country. It would be great if E-Justice could receive Government support in the upcoming budget cycle.
The inaugural Commercial Instructions Drafting Training was held in June 2023, with a focus on assisting senior public sector managers to more effectively communicate their needs in the form of detailed instructions in order to improve project delivery, and to raise greater awareness and improve understanding of the commercial contracts templates and commercial and legal risks management.
My International Division collaborated with key stakeholders to improve the TCI's compliance with its international obligations through focus groups tackling issues and finding solutions in the area of maritime, cyber-security, virtual assets and virtual assets service providers, countering terrorism financing and financing of weapons proliferation, the crypto assets, sanctions, and compliance reporting with the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of a Child, the United Nations Convention against Corruption (the Merida Convention) and the Terrorist Financing Convention.
The division collaborated with the Governor’s Office, the ODPP and law enforcement partners on nine incoming and outgoing mutual legal assistance matters (including extradition) to strengthen criminal investigations where critical evidence was shown to be or suspected of being in another jurisdiction and coordinating responses to requests for such assistance from other jurisdictions. The Division also completed four (4) MOUs on behalf of FIA and other law enforcement agencies.
The Division conducted training programs to improve stakeholders’ level of understanding of the FATF AML/CFT standards and requirements, and provided AML/CFT Training to the members of the Immigration and Customs Departments and sourced training from the USDOJ for AGC, ODPP, LEAs on the Mutual Legal Assistance and Extradition process.
My Lady, thanks to the leadership of my International division, the CFATF’s assessment of the Turks and Caicos Islands’ technical compliance with the FATF’s Recommendations is now rated as largely compliant or compliant on 37 out of 40. Our jurisdiction continues to make progress on the three remaining FATF Recommendations through the completion of a revised National Risk Assessment to better identify, assess and understand our money laundering and terrorist financing risks so that we can apply AML/CFT measures that correspond to the level of risks. Mr. Kerry Lucio has been appointed as the TCI’s first National AML/CFT Coordinator to drive the delivery of this national effort. Mr. Lucio is an experienced and EU/CFATF accredited AML/CFT and financial analyst and investigator with in-depth knowledge of the FATF Recommendations and their application with experience in leading multi-jurisdictional project teams. Judicial and legal colleagues are encouraged to engage with him in this national effort.
The hard working team in my Civil litigation division had another busy year dominated by judicial review challenges particularly in the area of immigration, planning, Inland Revenue and status claims and consultation. This area of work needs
Staff: My Lady, since my last report, Ms. Khadija MacFarlane, Ms. Meera Goalan and Ms. Tesharna Williams each took up appointments as Senior Crown Counsel and Crown Counsel. We welcome their arrival and the contributions they made during the course of the year. In 2023 my Chambers continued to discharge our responsibilities to the growth and development of Islander attorneys through the training and moving the applications for the admission of Tamika Simms-Williams in April, Tavania Wilson in July, Tesharna Williams in December with Gardiner lined up for this quarter. Unfortunately, we didn’t have positions to keep all of them, we were able to employ two of them as Crown Counsel positions which are reserved for Islanders for many years. With the recent appointments 100% of crown counsel positions are occupied by bright, young Turks and Caicos Islanders.
We are now at full complement but given the growing pace and volume of work, I am conducting a review of the structure of my Chambers. I anticipate the support of the Government through increased manpower and resourcing to ensure a healthy and productive work environment through improve work flow and more effective delivery of responsive and solutions oriented advice and representation.
My Lady, as law officers, we stand in full support of the work of the judiciary and wish you, and the entire judiciary a prosperous and productive New Year.
CONCLUSION
My Lady, in conclusion, it has been yet another full year and undoubtedly challenges lie ahead for the forthcoming one. We are ready to face those challenges.
My Lady, it remains for me to formally move for the Opening of the Legal Year 2024.
May it please the Court.
Rhondalee Braithwaite-Knowles, OBE KC
Hon. Attorney General
4th January 2024