|
|
|
|
Last Updated: Mar 31, 2017 - 10:41:42 PM |
 Speaking Notes for Senate Senator, The Honourable Allyson Maynard Gibson QC Attorney General And Minister Of Legal Affairs Commonwealth Of The Bahamas
On The Criminal Procedure Code (Amendment) Bill, 2017 And Trafficking In Persons (Prevention And Suppression) (Amendment) Bill, 2017 Monday 27th March, 2017:
Madame President
As you are aware, in 2008 Parliament enacted the Trafficking in Persons (Prevention and Suppression) Act (Ch. 106), which created offences relating to trafficking in persons, in an effort to ensure that The Bahamas remained compliant with international norms and efforts to combat activity which exploited persons for material gain, and preyed upon persons seeking to improve their circumstances. It is worthy to note that within the Act, there are offences which are triable summarily or on information.
Madame President
As a part of the Swift Justice Initiative, the Office of the Attorney-General in an attempt to better utilize judicial resources, sought to limit the use of Preliminary Inquiries –which as you know Madame President is a determination by a Magistrate whether there is a case to heard – through the employment of the Voluntary Bill of Indictment procedure which move matters that are triable
on information to the Supreme Court. This procedure which is available under the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code Act (Ch. 91) was utilized in the case of Chevaneese Hall who was brought before the Supreme Court pursuant to a Voluntary Bill of Indictment and was convicted of two offences of trafficking in persons and withholding identification papers under sections 3 and 4 of Trafficking in Persons Act, both offences being either triable summarily or on information. She was subsequently sentenced in June 2014 to fifteen years imprisonment. Upon Hall’s appeal to the Court of Appeal, the conviction was quashed on the basis that the offences could not be tried on information and that there was thus no authority to prefer a Voluntary Bill of Indictment.
Madame President, the Office of the Attorney-General appealed the Court of Appeal decision before the Privy Council and the Privy Council decision which was delivered on the 17th October 2016, concluded that, due to the definition of indictable offence in section 2 of the Criminal Procedure Code Act, the Voluntary Bill of Indictment procedure could not be utilized, as that procedure could only be used in relation to offences which are triable on information only, or which are listed in the Third Schedule of the Act.
Notably, multiple serious offences can be tried either in the Magistrate's Court or the Supreme Court and are not listed in the Third Schedule of the Act, and therefore, pursuant to the decision of the Privy Council, cannot be said to be triable on information “only”.
Accordingly, Madame President, based on the decision of the Privy Council, the current definition of indictable offence, the Voluntary Bill of Indictment procedure cannot be lawfully used to commit these latter types of offences to the Supreme Court.
Madame President, my government, in taking heed of the Privy Council’s decision and observations in the Hall case, saw it fit to address this matter urgently. Therefore Madame President, the Criminal Procedure Code (Amendment) Bill, 2017 seeks to amend the Criminal Procedure Code Act to ensure that the Voluntary Bill of Indictment procedure can be used in respect of all offences which are triable on information, the definition in section 2 is to be repealed and replaced as proposed.
In addition, Madame President, this Bill seeks to amend section 58 of the Act to empower the Attorney-General or his delegate to commence prosecutions without any reference to a magistrate for the determination of the mode of trial where the offence at hand is triable either way without the accused person having any right to elect trial by jury.
Madame President
I also take this opportunity to speak to a very brief but necessary amendment to the Trafficking in Persons (Prevention and Suppression) Act.
Madame President
As you aware the trafficking of persons is a serious global issue in which human trafficking is perpetrated for the purposes of forced sexual exploitation, labour and forced organ donation of vulnerable persons. However, the sexual exploitation of women and children account for a significant majority of human trafficking.
The Act addresses a number of criminal offences, among which include the trafficking in persons and withholding identification papers, as were the offences for which Ms. Hall was charged.
Madame President, the Trafficking in Persons (Prevention and Suppression) (Amendment) Bill, 2017, however, proposes the creation of a new offence that criminalises the organising engagement in or directing another to engage in the trafficking of persons.
I thank you Madame President, for this opportunity and for your attention.
© Copyright 2017 by thebahamasweekly.com
Top of Page
|
|
|
|
