PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, (CMC) — The Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice Wednesday said it will sit in Barbados in April to hear the case involving a Jamaican woman who said she had been sexually assaulted when she arrived in Barbados on March 14 last year.

The sitting at the Barbados Court of Appeal on April 18, will be the first to be held by the regional court outside its headquarters since it was established in 2001 to replace the London-based Privy Council as the region’s final court.

Myrie…case to be heard by CCJ next month

The CCJ, which also acts as an international tribunal interpreting the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas (RTC) that governs the regional integration movement, has both an appellate and original jurisdiction.

However, while many of the 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries are signatories to the original jurisdiction, only Barbados, Guyana and Belize have signed on to the appellate jurisdiction.

In the statement, the CCJ said that it will be sitting in Barbados from April 16-19 to hear various matters.

“The itinerant nature of the CCJ means that the Court is able to sit and conduct court matters in any country which is signatory to the Agreement Establishing the Caribbean Court of Justice. This move reduces the travelling costs of attorneys and litigants in some instances and, more importantly, brings the CCJ closer to the people that it serves,” the statement said.

It said that the CCJ will hear four matters, originating respectively from Barbados, Belize, Guyana and Jamaica.

Last month, the CCJ held a case management conference by video link established between its headquarters here the Supreme Court of Jamaica in Kingston.

Jamaican Shanique Myrie had petitioned the CCJ to determine, under the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas (RTC), the minimum standard of treatment applicable to CARICOM citizens moving within the region.

Myrie has accused customs officials at Barbados’ Grantley Adams International Airport of an unlawful cavity search when she attempted to gain entry to that CARICOM member state.

The CCJ said the case is especially significant, as whatever judgment is handed down by the court will establish a precedent for such situations.

Under its Original Jurisdiction, the CCJ has compulsory and exclusive competence to interpret and apply the RTC, as in this instance, by hearing and deciding disputes between CARICOM nationals and CARICOM member states concerning issues with which the treaty deals.

Myrie contends that the treatment she received at the hands of Barbadian officials at Grantley Adams Airport ran contrary to her entitlements provided under the RTC and she obtained permission from the Government of Jamaica to approach the CCJ directly on the matter.

She has accordingly filed an application before the Court for Special Leave to appear as a party in proceedings against the State of Barbados.