Ambassador Huntley to Deliver Public Lecture on Constitutional Reform

[dropcap]F[/dropcap]ormer Saint Lucia diplomat, Ambassador Earl Stephen Huntley, will on Wednesday 12^th April, 2017, deliver a lecture on Constitutional Reform in Saint Lucia, in collaboration with The UWI Open Campus Saint Lucia and the National Television Network (NTN). The lecture is yet another activity by the Open Campus in its continued promotion of public education on issues of national importance.

It will be held at the studios of NTN at Hewannora House, Pointe Seraphine, and is a continuation of the Network’s programming on Constitutional Reform. In February and March 2017, the National Television Network broadcast a number of panel discussions on constitutional reform in Saint Lucia, which also dealt with the Report of the Constitution Reform Commission. The Saint Lucia Government’s Advisor on Constitutional Reform, Ms. Kim St. Rose, hosted these discussions.

Ambassador Huntley’s lecture will commence at 7:30p.m. at NTN, which will broadcast the event, live from its studio at Hewanorra House, Pointe Seraphine. The lecture is entitled “Constitutional Reform in Saint Lucia: Bridging the Divides in the Debate”. It is based on a paper of the same name written by Ambassador Huntley, which was motivated by the 2015 Parliamentary Debate in Saint Lucia on the Report of the Constitutional Reform Commission, established in 2004 to recommend a new constitution for Saint Lucia.

Ambassador Huntley will argue that the Saint Lucia Parliament’s consideration of the Report revealed that there are three differing streams in the debate on constitutional reform. These are-the views and desires of the people; the Commission’s reflections on those views and its consequential recommendation for constitutional change; and the response of the Parliamentarians to the Commission’s recommendations. The lecture will present a model of a new constitution that attempts to marry those streams, by building on elements of all three. The model focuses on the structure of government-the composition, election, and role of the Executive and Legislative branches as well as that of Local Government.

The public is invited to join the studio audience.