At the end of August distinguished Guyanese jurist Bryn Pollard SC will complete a satisfying term as chairman of the Inter-American Juridical Committee. The members of the committee are elected by the General Assembly of the Organisation of American States (OAS). Before his election in 2002 as chairman, Pollard served as vice chairman from 2000 -2002.
Pollard is one of two Caribbean jurists on the committee. The other is former Jamaica Solicitor General, Dr Ken Rattray. Sir William Douglas, a former Chief Justice of Barbados and later its Ambassador to the United States of America and to the OAS, chaired the committee for six months. Pollard has the distinction of being the only Caribbean national, up to now, to have chaired the committee for a full two-year term
In a recent interview with the Current Affairs, Pollard said that among the issues which came before the committee were the Helms-Burton Law enacted by the US Congress, and the Inter-American Democratic Charter.
He said too that the committee also expressed an opinion on the Inter-American Convention Against Corruption and offered suggestions about ways and means that it could be strengthened in its implementation. It also, he said, prepared a manual for the guidance of small states on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Other topics which the committee considered and made recommendations to member-states during Pollard's tenure include the right of Access to Information and the Protection of Personal Data; the Abduction of Minors by one of their parents; the Juridical Aspects of Hemispheric Security; Improving Systems of the Administration of Justice; the Juridical Aspects of Integration and International Trade; Human Rights and Bio-medicine on the Protection of the Human Body, Competition Law and Non-Contractual Liability and the Applicable Law.
The seat of the committee is in Rio and is housed in the renowned Palacio Itamarty but can meet in the cities of other member-states on the affirmative vote of six of its eleven members.
The OAS Charter mandated the committee to serve as an advisory body on juridical matters; promote the progressive development and codification of international law; and to study juridical problems related to the integration of the developing countries of the Hemisphere and, insofar as may appear desirable, the possibility of attaining uniformity in their legislation.
Its duties and responsibilities include undertaking studies and preparatory work assigned to it by the General Assembly, the Meeting of Consultation of Foreign Ministers, or the Councils of the Organisation. It may, also, on its own initiative, undertake such studies and preparatory work as it considers advisable, and suggest the holding of specialised juridical conferences.
The committee is authorised to establish cooperative relations with universities, institutes, and other teaching centres, as well as with national and international committees and entities devoted to the study, research, teaching, or dissemination of information on juridical matters of international interest.
Pollard said too that the committee sponsors and conducts its International Law Course annually in Rio, which is attended by nationals of member-states who have been awarded fellowships to facilitate their participation and also to a number of professors from the Americas and Europe to deliver lectures.
The committee dates back to 1906 when a resolution adopted by the III American Conference held in Rio set up the International American Jurisconsultancy Committee. Among other projects and draft documents on international law, this committee approved the renowned Bustamante Code.
It was then renamed the Inter-American Neutrality Committee in 1939 during the Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of American Republics that was held in Panama. Some outstanding jurists of the hemisphere who have sat on the committee include Afranio de Mello Franco of Brazil, Luis Podesta Costa of Argentina, Gustavo Herrera of Venezuela, Mariano Fontecilla of Chile, Roberto Cordoba of Mexico and Charles Fenwick of the United States of America. Three years later at the III Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the American Republics the name was changed to its present one.