Bar Association will participate in education process

Wilfred Elrington

In Tuesday’s newscast, President of the Bar Eamon Courtenay strongly defended the work and worth of that Association. And to cement his position that there is much that the Bar does in matters of national interest, Courtenay pointed out that the Association will be participating fully in the education and awareness campaign in respect of the referendum on whether to take the territorial claim to the ICJ. Today Elrington told us that it has always been his intention for the Bar Association to participate, so the stated intention by Courtenay is sure to be welcome.

Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs

“When we decided to embark upon the campaign, I personally gave specific instructions to invite every organization in the country to participate; every organization including the Bar Association, including all Foreign Ministers, including the churches and every other institution. I am certain that invitation was sent out to the Bar formally; months ago.”

Eamon Courtenay

Eamon Courtenay, President, Bar Association

“On the question of the ICJ the Bar Executive, since we were elected less than a month ago has considered the issue and what we have done is we have asked a member to prepare a paper on possible options that the Bar can take. How can the Bar contribute? The member has provided that paper to me, which I am going to circulate to members of the Executive, then at the next general meeting we are going to take a decision on what the Bar should do. But I don’t think that I would be exceeding my authority to say that the Bar certainly intends to participate in the education process. I don’t know whether the members will feel it is right for us to take a position one way or the other on YES or NO on going to the ICJ but we will be assisting in explaining some of the legal ramifications. There are many ways that we can help, holding conferences, bringing in experts, offering explanations to schools and other organizations in terms of the legal opinion. And we will consider these and decide what to do.”