Jamaican Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Senator A.J. Nicholson

Speaking in the Upper House on Friday, Nicholson said the agreement, which was signed between the GoJ and the CBA in August to conduct the review, was the first such undertaking in the country’s 44-year post-Independence history.

He informed that on-site activities, which began in September, were to be completed by June 2007 and that this “should provide a modernisation plan for the transformation of the justice system."

“The reform itself will evolve from a broad-based approach that is being adopted for this review. A management group comprising the Canadian team and their local counterparts and supported by a Canadian Advisory Committee will be working with a Task Force to drive the reform process,” he said.

Nicholson said the Task Force comprised individuals from several levels of society, which he said would include: “the judiciary, the church, the public and private bar, the Dispute Resolution Foundation, academia, the Opposition, the business community, youth, Justices of the Peace, human rights activists, the Ministry of National Security and its agencies, trade unions and the Ministry of Justice.”

Nicholson informed colleagues that the Task Force would “provide added oversight for the reform of the system that is already underway and sign off on the final report that will form the basis of the modernisation agenda.”