by Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ and Director, CREDI
“Saying thank you is more than good manners. It is good spirituality.” (Alfred Painter)
On behalf of CCSJ, I would like to thank all those who helped to make our 4th Respect for Life Week a memorable one. Our theme this year was: Regenerating the Moral and Spiritual Values of our Society. Presentations such as Archbishop Harris’ and Dr Terrence Farrell’s – delivered at our opening Conference – will be uploaded on CCSJ’s website. DVDs of the Conference and of most of the panel discussions that took place across the country can be obtained from CCSJ’s Office (Tel: 290 1635).
Thanks to our Apostolic Nuncio, His Excellency Archbishop Nicola Girasoli, who came straight from the airport to address participants at our opening Conference at Living Water Community. We appreciate his words of encouragement to us as we seek to build a culture of life in our communities, in our nation, and in our world.
When we lose respect for life, we fail to be guided by the moral compass which God has inscribed in our hearts. While we must pray for all persons to respect life, we must also act to build a nation/world in which the sanctity of life and the dignity of the human person become a reality. In the face of the various societal ills that confront us, including ecological injustice, we cannot afford to be paralysed by the enormity of the task to build a civilisation of love. No one can do everything, but everyone can do something. We will respect all life if we strive to become more like Christ. Let us promote, protect, and defend life from conception to natural death.
Thanks also to those who supported the International Conference held on October 1 at UWI on the theme: The Death Penalty in the context of public security: Neither right, nor effective. His Grace’s message to participants, which I shared, was well received. Because human dignity is given to us by God it is universal, inalienable and inviolable. We must respect all life, including, as His Grace said, the lives of those who have no respect for life.
In October 2011, after the first International Conference on the Death Penalty in the Caribbean region, held in Madrid, I was one of five persons appointed to an Interim Working Group known as The Greater Caribbean for Life (GCL). That Conference was organised by the Community Sant’Egidio, a Catholic lay organisation based in Rome. On October1, 2013 the GCL partnered with CCSJ, Alpha Chambers, the Puerto Rican Coalition against the Death Penalty, the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, and Community of Sant’Egidio to organise the aforementioned conference at UWI.
On October 2, the day after our conference at UWI, abolitionists from the Caribbean region met to establish the GCL formally. A constitution was adopted and officers were elected. I was elected Chair of GCL. Other officers are: Deputy Chair – attorney Carmelo Campos-Cruz, Puerto Rico Coalition Against the Death Penalty (PRCADP); Secretary – attorney Mariana Nogales Molinelli, also of PRCADP; Deputy Secretary – attorney Nicole Sylvester, President of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Human Rights Association; and Treasurer – Fenella Wenham, D’Infinite Inc., Dominica. The two other Executive members are attorney Dr Lloyd Barnett, Independent Jamaica Council for Human Rights, and Mario Polanco, Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo, Guatemala.
All those present at the meeting joined GCL. They include individuals from Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Belize, Cuba, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago. You can read GCL’s Constitution, the final declaration of GCL’s first meeting, and sign up via our Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/GCFLife
On October 3, Chiara Sangiorgio, Amnesty International, Nicole Sylvester and I met with Hon Anand Ramlogan, T&T’s Attorney General. Inter alia, we discussed issues relating to human rights in T&T, including the need to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the criminal justice system. At our Conference on October 1, both Pamela Elder SC, President of T&T’s Criminal Bar, and Sophia Chote SC, Vice-President of T&T’s Criminal Bar, highlighted the deficiencies in the administration of justice. Indeed, SC Elder said that our criminal justice system “was in shambles.”
Chief Justice Ivor Archie admitted at the Youth Justice Symposium held recently at the Hyatt Regency that T&T’s “justice system is falling short of international standards as it lacks specialised juvenile courts, as well as widespread diversionary and rehabilitative programmes specifically targeted at young offenders” (Newsday, Oct 5). With all the resources we have, we must do more to improve our institutions. Our people are our greatest assets. Let’s save our youth, in particular.
