CONSTITUTION REFORM CONSULTATIONS NEARING COMP

CCNTV6

The PNM's penultimate constitution reform consultation was held at the San Fernando City Hall on Saturday... and with just one more internal  consultation to go, the party is preparing to have its views handed over to the Prime Minister, who will then decide on the way forward. Rynessa Cutting has more.

Transcript

00:00The right to life and liberty, the right to freedom of movement, the right to respect for private and family life.

00:08These are among the constitutional rights of individuals in Trinidad and Tobago.

00:14But consultations on reform have exposed some possible gaps.

00:19The views about the constitutional, the individual constitutional rights,

00:23and particularly what was interesting was the views relative to the protection of the rights of the children.

00:28Because we are seriously considering, under active consideration,

00:32a recommendation of whether or not we have to put up the right to education in the constitution.

00:39What we have here at Section, I think it's 4F, is the right of the parent,

00:44or the right of the parent to enroll the child in school, etc.

00:48When you combine that with the Education Act and Children's Act,

00:52you can get a conglomerate of legislation that would point to that.

00:59There is a recommendation under consideration to have it made

01:04prelucidly clear as a right, as an enshrined right in the constitution.

01:10And with many persons spending in excess of 10 years in remand,

01:14issues with the judicial system are also front and centre.

01:19The views on the criminal law, criminal justice system,

01:22whether or not it's now time to put not just the right to a fair trial,

01:26but the right to a fair trial within a reasonable time.

01:30It's a serious business we're about here.

01:32The PNM will host one final round of internal consultations,

01:36following which a report will be compiled and presented to the Prime Minister.

01:41We can't say what's next. The Prime Minister has to say what's next.

01:46But once that round of consultation is completed,

01:49the committee will then go into plenary deliberations

01:53and present its report to the Honourable Prime Minister.

01:56We would want to do that within a short space of time.

01:59We wouldn't want to go beyond two to three weeks after the last consultation.

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