Barbados' constitutional reform commission releases report of recommendations

Barbados’ new constitution will enshrine a binding code of conduct for ministers, give the opposition more seats in the Senate, ensure gender parity in the Upper House of Parliament and, for the first time, empower citizens to sue each other for breaches of constitutional rights, if the recommendations of the Constitutional Reform Commission (CRC) are accepted. The recommendations are contained in the CRC’s 360-page just-released report, with the commission making it clear that all of the rights to be enjoyed by citizens carry with them limitations that must be reasonably justifiable. [ . . . ] On the ground-breaking proposal to allow private citizens to sue each other for constitutional breaches, or “direct horizontality,” the CRC observed that constitutions traditionally regulate relations between the State and citizens. “Therefore, the traditional view, in relation to fundamental rights, has been that those provisions only bind the State, and therefore, rights and freedoms are enjoyed by persons against the State, rather than against other persons. Said differently, it is only the State which is obliged to respect the rights and freedoms of persons,” the report highlighted. “Put simply, one can only sue the State for breach of constitutional rights, but not a private person. This view of fundamental rights is known as ‘vertical application’, so called because of the idea that the State exists above the person so that constitutional rights apply vertically between the two.” But the CRC believes that in applying fundamental rights horizontally, each case must consider the nature and content of the right, alongside the duties imposed on private individuals.
Read the full article here: Barbados Today