First Belizean sworn in as CCJ judge
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — Justice Denys Arthur Barrow, a Belizean national, was on Thursday sworn in as Judge of the Trinidad and Tobago based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).
Barrow, whose swearing in ceremony, in his home country of Belize,, is the first citizen of Belize to be appointed to the CCJ bench.He brings to the CCJ bench a forty-year legal career together with various stints of judicial appointments in judiciaries across the region and membership on a world-renowned tribunal dealing with international labour and human rights law.Barrow is a graduate of the University of the West Indies with a Bachelor of Laws and received a Legal Education Certificate from the Norman Manley Law School.His judicial career included service as High Court Judge in St Lucia, Grenada, Belize and the British Virgin Islands between 2001 and 2005, Justice of Appeal of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court from 2005 to 2008 and Justice of Appeal of the Court of Appeal of Belize from 2010 to 2012.For nine years beginning in 2005 he served annually in Geneva, Switzerland as a member and then rapporteur of the International Labour Organisation’s Committee of Experts responsible for monitoring the application of international conventions on labour and human rights law.Members of the Committee are selected from across the world from among persons who have distinguished themselves as judges and professors of law.Barrow was selected from among applicants from the Caribbean, North America and Eastern Europe.Judges appointed to the CCJ are evaluated on the basis of wide-ranging criteria that include; experience, high moral character, intellectual and analytical ability, sound judgment, integrity and an understanding of people and society.