Maureen Rajnauth-Lee

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Maureen Rajnauth-Lee is a jurist from Trinidad and Tobago. She has sat on the Caribbean Court of Justice since 2015. [1] [2] [3]

Trinidad and Tobago Island country in the Caribbean Sea

Trinidad and Tobago, officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is a twin island country that is the southernmost nation of the West Indies in the Caribbean. It is situated 130 kilometres south of Grenada off the northern edge of the South American mainland, 11 kilometres off the coast of northeastern Venezuela. It shares maritime boundaries with Barbados to the northeast, Grenada to the northwest, Guyana to the southeast, and Venezuela to the south and west.

The Caribbean Court of Justice is the judicial institution of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). Established in 2003, it is based in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.

Rajnauth-Lee graduated from the University of the West Indies in 1976 with a Bachelor of Laws (First Class Honours), continuing her education at the Hugh Wooding Law School. From 1981 until 1985 she was a state counsel in the Office of the Solicitor General; from October 1985 until January 2001 she was a lawyer in private practice in Trinidad and Tobago. From February 2001 until October 2012 she was a Judge of the High Court; in the latter year she became a Justice of Appeal of the Judiciary of Trinidad and Tobago, in which position she remained until joining the bench of the Caribbean Court of Justice. [4] Rajnauth-Lee has been active in the fight to combat sexual violence against women. [5] She serves as vice-president of the Caribbean Association of Women Judges. [6]

University of the West Indies International university in the Caribbean

The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 17 English-speaking countries and territories in the Caribbean: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turks and Caicos Islands. Each country is either a member of the Commonwealth of Nations or a British Overseas Territory. The aim of the university is to help 'unlock the potential for economic and cultural growth' in the West Indies, thus allowing improved regional autonomy. The University was originally instituted as an independent external college of the University of London.

The Hugh Wooding Law School (HWLS) is a law school in Trinidad and Tobago.

Judiciary of Trinidad and Tobago

The judiciary of Trinidad and Tobago is a branch of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago that interprets and applies the laws of Trinidad and Tobago, to ensure equal justice under law, and to provide a mechanism for dispute resolution. The judiciary is a hierarchical system comprising a Supreme Court of Judicature, a Magistracy and a Family Court. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is the head of the judiciary and is appointed by the President, on the advice of the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition; the current Chief Justice is Ivor Archie. The Supreme Court consists of a High Court and a Court of Appeal, whilst the Magistracy consists of separate criminal and civil courts with original jurisdiction, and is led by a Chief Magistrate.

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Caribbean Community Organisation of 15 Caribbean nations and dependencies

The Caribbean Community is an organisation of fifteen Caribbean nations and dependencies having primary objectives to promote economic integration and cooperation among its members, to ensure that the benefits of integration are equitably shared, and to coordinate foreign policy. The organisation was established in 1973. Its major activities involve coordinating economic policies and development planning; devising and instituting special projects for the less-developed countries within its jurisdiction; operating as a regional single market for many of its members ; and handling regional trade disputes. The secretariat headquarters is in Georgetown, Guyana. CARICOM is an official United Nations Observer.

Gillian Lucky is a judge at the Supreme Court of Trinidad and Tobago. Justice Lucky was sworn in on September 8, 2014 by President Anthony Carmona. She previously sat as a temporary High Court Judge between October 2009 - September 2010.

Jamaica women's national football team is nicknamed the 'Reggae Girlz'. They are one of the top women's national football teams in the Caribbean region along with Trinidad and Tobago and Haiti. In 2008 the team was disbanded after they failed to get out of the group stage of Olympic Qualifying, which notably featured the United States and Mexico. The program was restarted in 2014 after nearly a six-year hiatus. They finished second at the 2014 Women's Caribbean Cup losing 1–0 against Trinidad and Tobago in the final. The team is backed by ambassador Cedella Marley, the daughter of the late Bob Marley, she aids in raising awareness for the team and encourages development as well as providing for it financially. Jamaica qualified for the FIFA Women's World Cup for the first time ever in 2019.

LGBT rights in Trinidad and Tobago

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Judiciary of Barbados

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Dame Bernice Lake QC was an Anguillan-born jurist and legal scholar whose career spanned more than forty years. In 1985, she became the first woman from the Eastern Caribbean to be appointed Queen's Counsel. Lake was also the first graduate of the University of the West Indies to receive the honor.

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Women in Trinidad and Tobago are women who were born in, who live in, or are from Trinidad and Tobago. Depending from which island the women came, they may also be called Trinidadian women or Tobagonian women respectively. Women in Trinidad and Tobago excel in various industries and occupations, including micro-enterprise owners, "lawyers, judges, politicians, civil servants, journalists, and calypsonians." Women still dominate the fields of "domestic service, sales, and some light manufacturing."

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Rhoda Reddock is a Trinidadian educator and social activist. She has served as founder, chair, adviser, or member of several organizations, such as the Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action (CAFRA), the Global Fund for Women, and the Regional Advisory Committee of the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS established by UNAIDS. In 2002 she received the Seventh CARICOM Triennial Award for Women, was Trinidad and Tobago's nominee for the International Women of Courage Award in 2008, and was honoured in her country's National Honour Awards ceremony in 2012 with the Gold Medal for the Development of Women.

Désirée Patricia Bernard is a Guyanese lawyer and jurist who was the country's first female judge of the High Court in 1980 and Justice of Appeal of the Supreme Court in 1992. She was appointed Chief Justice of Guyana in 1996, Chancellor of the Judiciary of Guyana and the Caribbean in 2001 and a Judge of the Caribbean Court of Justice in 2005. In 2014, she was appointed to the Bermuda Court of Appeal.

Jason Jones is a gay LGBTQI+ activist from Trinidad and Tobago who successfully challenged the constitutionality of Sections 13 and 16 of the Sexual Offenses Act prohibiting consensual adult intercourse per anum and sexual acts between consenting same-sex adults. In a landmark judgment in the English-speaking Caribbean, Justice Devindra Rampersad ruled the clauses unconstitutional and null and void.

M. Jacqui Alexander is an Afro-Caribbean lesbian writer, teacher, and activist. She is both a Professor Emeritus at the Women and Gender Studies Department of the University of Toronto as well as the creator and director of the Tobago Centre "for the study and practice of indigenous spirituality". Jacqui Alexander is an enthusiast of "the ancient African (diasporic) spiritual systems of Orisa/Ifá, and a student of yoga and Vipassana meditation". She has received teachings on this meditative practice in Nigeria, the Kôngo, India, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, and New York. The themes of her work have captured a range of social justice subjects from the effects of imperialism, colonialism, and enslavement with special attention paid to the "pathologizing narratives" around homosexuality, gender, nationalism. Alexander's academic areas of interest specifically include: African Diasporic Cosmologies, African Diasporic Spiritual Practices, Caribbean studies, Gender and the Sacred, Heterosexualization and State Formation, Transnational feminism.

References

  1. "NEW JUDGE SWORN INTO THE CARIBBEAN COURT OF JUSTICE | Caribbean Association of Women Judges". www.cawj.org. Retrieved May 7, 2019.
  2. "A New Judge at the Caribbean Court of Justice". Caribbean Journal. Apr 1, 2015. Retrieved May 7, 2019.
  3. "Jamaica Observer Limited". Jamaica Observer. Retrieved May 7, 2019.
  4. "The Honourable Mme. Justice Rajnauth-Lee". Caribbean Court of Justice. Retrieved May 7, 2019.
  5. "Guyana - War on sexual violence". www.juristproject.org. Retrieved May 7, 2019.
  6. "About CAWJ | Caribbean Association of Women Judges". www.cawj.org. Retrieved May 7, 2019.