PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, May 25, CMC – Senior Counsel Justin Phelps Monday said the ruling by the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in a matter involving his client and Suriname “ will have a significant impact on the conditions in which business in the Caribbean region is conducted”.
“The Court has recognized that the rights conferred by the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas cannot be effective without the protection of a minimum standard of human rights.
“Such a regional standard of human rights will be welcomed by Caricom citizens doing business within the community and will advance the ideal of Caribbean economic integration with which the Treaty is concerned,” Phelps, who represented the Trinidad-based political consult and and analyst. Derek Ramsamooj, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).
The lawyers representing Suriname have so far made no public statement on the ruling.
The CCJ awarded Ramsamooj, US$30,000 in damages resulting from his arrest and detention in Suriname in 2020.
Ramsamooj had alleged that his rights under the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas (RTC) which governs the regional integration movement, CARICOM, had been breached due to his unlawful detention by police officers in Suriname from October 2020 to September 2022.
He said he had also been denied legal counsel and medical attention and that he had also coerced into signing documents in Dutch, a language unknown to him, which were later used in court as his confession.
CCJ President, Justice Winston Anderson, who read the summary of the ruling, said that regarding remedies, the CCJ declined to make a declaration in respect of the alleged breach of the freedom to provide services being unsatisfied on the evidence that Ramsamooj was at the material time actively engaged in the provision of services within the meaning of the RTC.
He said with respect to the claim for damages, theCourt was also not satisfied that Ramsamooj had demonstrated a causal link between the denial of his access to counsel and the medical expenses he had incurred.
“Nevertheless, the Court was convinced that the claimant suffered severe emotional and physical distress and that his health deteriorated appreciably because of his attention and that these effects were exacerbated by the claimant being held incommunicado without access to his family and his attorney at crucial stages.
“The Court accepted the unchallenged expert evidence on behalf of the claimant of a consultant cardiologist that the claimant had sustained a coronary event, a stroke, and significant progression of his coronary artery disease during his detention and that the reported conditions of detention would certainly have contributed to the decline of his cardiovascular and general health.”
Justice Anderson said that on the basis of that evidence, the CCJ found that such deterioration in health, “at least partially caused by conditions which breached his basic human rights enjoyed under the RTC, must attract some monetary recompense.
“The Court did not consider it necessary to pronounce on the allegations of breach of Article 7 or 9 of the treaty, noting that a finding of breach of the specific substantive right to freedom of movement was sufficient.
“The Court declared that the application of the Biperkin mechanism to the claimant in the circumstances of this case was inconsistent with and constituted a breach of his right to freedom of movement under the RTC. It awarded the claimant the sum of US$30,000 by way of non-pecuniary damages as compensation for the clear and significant injury sustained by the claimant as a result of the serious breach of an important RTC right”.
Phelps said he has been “reassured” by the Court’s observations about the treatment of Ramsamooj in Suriname, addin “my client is this region’s leading political analyst and researcher.
“Since 2020 he has been the target of a politically motivated effort to ruin him. He has suffered significant and irreparable hardship. I am pleased that his position has been vindicated.
“When he returns from Haiti where he is currently advising on issues of governance, we will be moving for final declarations of his innocence in Suriname,” Phelps said, adding “we are grateful for the speed with which the matter was resolved by the Court and the balanced and courteous manner in which our arguments were received, interrogated and determined”.
The CCJ has said that the full written judgement will be available on its website on Monday.
CMC/pr/ir/2026