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| The Hon. Patrice Nisbett, Legal Advisor in the Nevis Island Administration |
CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (July 02, 07) -- Legal Advisor in the Nevis Island Administration the Hon. Patrice Nisbett, issued a call to members of the legal fraternity on St. Kitts and Nevis to assist the Nevis Reformation Party (NRP) - led Nevis Island Administration (NIA) in its efforts to move forward the process of greater autonomy for the Nevis Island Legislature.
He made the call during a press briefing on Thursday June 28, 2007, at the NIA’s conference room in Charlestown and cited that the initiative - the devolution of power - was in keeping with a campaign promise by the NRP one year ago.
“We are encouraging the lawyers to write papers, do whatever so that they can be made available to us in our deliberations and assist us so that we can achieve a more reasonable and equitable solution to the situation that exists between St. Kitts and Nevis..
“Up till now we have not received any responses from the lawyers in Nevis. I know they got their letters. I would hope that through this particular medium that they will make a concerted effort to make the various submissions for our considerations,” he said.
The Legal Advisor disclosed, that a committee set up by the Administration had already met and arrived at a plan of action as to how best the desired objectives could be achieved.
He said so far the committee had issued individual letters to all members of the Bar Association of St. Kitts and Nevis which invited them to look at specified matters in the Constitution and to indicate how much legislative power they thought the NIA had at present and to provide suggestions on how the process forward could be moved forward.
According to Mr. Nisbett, the NIA had looked at the constitution of St. Kitts and Nevis and recognised that increased legislative autonomy was attainable for Nevis and there were indicators that the political will existed in the Federal Parliament, to facilitate the process since it would require a two thirds majority. ~~Adz:Right~~
“As the nation is aware, there are certain specified matters in Schedule 5 of the Constitution that gives the Nevis Island Legislature exclusive legislative competence over. There are certain areas that we (NIA) have exclusive responsibility over [including] education, airports, immigration, mining, labour and other areas, they are contained in Section 106 of the Constitution.
“One of the things that we want to do in terms of devolution is to add some of these very same matters in that particular section to the specified matters. For example we would want to give the Nevis Island Legislature legislative competence over matters such as education. We would want to be in a position to vote in our local Parliament and be in a position to pass laws governing our education system in Nevis and at present you cannot do that. This is a matter that can be achieved by a two thirds majority in the Federal Parliament all you will be doing is adding to the specified matters,” he explained.
The Legal Advisor noted that there were other sensitive areas which included immigration, the police and taxation which the NIA hoped to negotiate in a different arrangement with the Federal Government mindful that they were areas which demanded more serious and intense negotiations.
Mr. Nisbett said the Administration wanted to move the process forward since it was serious about concluding the negotiations within a time frame of six months.
