{"id":31043,"date":"2013-02-04T07:56:52","date_gmt":"2013-02-04T12:56:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/?p=31043"},"modified":"2013-02-04T07:56:53","modified_gmt":"2013-02-04T12:56:53","slug":"constitutional-commission-hosts-religious-symposium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2013\/02\/constitutional-commission-hosts-religious-symposium","title":{"rendered":"Constitutional Commission Hosts Religious Symposium"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In its attempt to ensure the widest range of consultation practicable on constitutional reform, the Constitutional Commission held a Religious Symposium at the Governor\u2019s Ballroom of the British Colonial Hilton on Friday, February 1, 2013. Heads of all Religious Denominations were invited to address The Commission on recommendations for constitutional reform.<\/p>\n

Presentations were made by Reverend Laish Z. Boyd Sr. of the Anglican Diocese of The Bahamas and The Turks and Caicos Islands; Bishop Dr. Roston L. Davis of The Bahamas Network of New Apostolic Churches; Elder Francis Carey of The Assemblies of Brethren; Pastor Sam Bootle of the Lutheran Churches of Nassau and Rev. Dr. Anthony Carroll of the Bahamas National Baptist Missionary and Educational Convention.<\/p>\n

There are strong and unanimous agreements within the religious community that the Constitution\u2019s foundational reference to \u201cChristian values\u201d in The Preamble must not be changed.<\/p>\n

Bishop Laish Boyd summed it up this way: \u201cChristian values were the principal backdrop in the environment where our Constitution was born. Therefore, I would not be in favour of removing \u201cChristian values\u201d from the Preamble because it is a statement fixed in time, reflective of the predominant and fundamental principles of that moment in history.\u201d<\/p>\n

On behalf of the Network of Apostolic Churches, Bishop Dr. Roston L. Davis recommended a constitutional entrenchment allowing for National Youth Service. According to Bishop Davis, social partnerships between the Church and the Government should be established to initiate two national programs \u2013 one for training youth leaders and the other for the training and discipline of \u201cat-risk\u201d youths.<\/p>\n

Bishop Davis believes that \u201cyoung people with the potential of leadership should be identified early and given the skill to lead their peers.\u201d As for interventions regarding at-risk youths, the Bishop feels that \u201ctraining and discipline for \u2018at-risk\u2019 youth should be given priority.\u201d He went on to say that \u201ca National Youth Service should be initiated to encompass both youth leaders and \u2018at-risk\u2019 youth. One programme would be preventative and the other corrective. These initiatives should be on different tracks for both males and females.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elder Francis Carey called for a radical restructuring of\u00a0 Parliament; he proposed the abolition of the Senate in its present form and the establishment of \u201cThe House of Governors\u201d as its replacement – an elected body that will not only \u201cdebate and validate\u201d legislation passed in the Lower House, but will perform the functions of the existing Family Island Councils and appointed Family Island Administrators.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Senate should become \u201cThe House of Governors\u201d comprising elected persons representing each island not by population, rather prorated by islands, who will serve in the Governors Offices on their island\/s with responsibility(s) for all government administration and business.\u201d The House of Governors, according to Elder Carey, \u201cwill debate and validate House of Assembly legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding the freedom of information, Pastor Bootle of the Lutheran Church acknowledged that the Parliament has passed a Freedom of Information Act that is yet to be gazetted and enacted into law. He however recommended an amendment to Article 23 (1) of the constitution to guarantee access to information held by the state or another person if access to this information is in the public\u2019s interest.<\/p>\n

Pastor Bootle recommended to the Commission, that \u201cArticle 23 be expanded to include the Freedom of Information as does the constitution of countries such as South Africa which explicitly guarantees the right of access to information held by the state or held by another person if it is required for the exercise or protection of any rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among his 14 recommendations made to the Commission, Rev. Dr. Anthony Carroll called for an independent Director of Public Prosecutions. \u201cThere is to (be) an independent body not within the employ of the Attorney General as is the case of the Court of Appeal\u201d said Dr. Carroll.<\/p>\n

When questioned about two chief lawyers representing the state, the Commissioners weighed in on this point. Chairman McWeeney pointed out that The Bahamas was probably the only country in the Caribbean that does not have an independent Director of Public Prosecution. He clarified a general misconception in the public domain that a \u201cnolle prosequi\u201d is a decision made independently by the Attorney General. In fact, he pointed out, this decision is based on recommendations from government lawyers and is rooted in the law. It is a burden Attorneys General carry because they are politicians and have constitutional responsibility for criminal prosecutions; this sometimes raises the question of political interference, the Chairman said. Commissioner Carl Bethel concurred with the Chairman that there is no public concern however, about political interference with the Attorney General presiding over civil and commercial cases on behalf of the Government.<\/p>\n

The Constitutional Commission begins its public consultations with four Town Hall Meetings scheduled for Grand Bahama on Friday, February 8, 2013. Public meetings are planned for West End, Eight Mile Rock, Freeport and High Rock. The meeting venues will be advertised in the coming days.<\/p>\n

By Elcott Coleby<\/span><\/em>
\nBahamas Information Services<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In its attempt to ensure the widest range of consultation practicable on constitutional reform, the Constitutional Commission held a Religious Symposium at the Governor\u2019s Ballroom of the British Colonial Hilton. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[530],"class_list":["post-31043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-constitutional-commission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31043\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}