Georgetown Magistrates’ Court hosts first Open Day
Attendees at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court Open Day
Kaieteur News – The Georgetown Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday held its first ‘Open Day’ at its Avenue of the Republic building.
The event aimed to connect with the public and stakeholders and offered an opportunity to interact with various court representatives, including the Chancellor of the Judiciary and several Magistrates.
Chancellor of the Judiciary Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards expressed her appreciation for the initiative, “It gives me a great pleasure to be associated with the initiative that has been planned and executed solely by Chief magistrates, Principal Magistrate, Senior Magistrates… in executing our first ever open day.”
The event drew a large crowd and had several goals, including encouraging the public to access justice, understand the court process, and strengthening community relations between the court and the public. Activities included guided tours, live court proceedings, interactive sessions, educational presentations, and questions and answers survey.
Senior Magistrate Clive Nurse remarked on the importance of the event, “We believe that this will assist members of the public and stakeholders to have a better appreciation and understanding of what the court does and the way it does it.”
Senior Magistrate Nurse also provided detailed information about the Court and future plans for the district. He mentioned that Georgetown is one of ten Magisterial Districts in Guyana, with others being in East and West Demerara and, Corentyne, Berbice, West Berbice, Essequibo, North West, Rupununi, and the Upper Demerara River.
He also announced that there would a new magisterial district which will be created soon on the East Bank Demerara. Further, Magistrate Nurse disclosed that there are 52 magistrates in the country and efforts are being made to have courts established at Friendship, Timehri, and La Parfaite Harmonie. New buildings will be dedicated to court at Port Kaituma and Mabaruma.
Meanwhile, attendees also had the opportunity to learn about different court services offered, including the children’s court, drug treatment and counselling. They were able to see the layout of the court and understand the roles of everyone involved, including the persons handling criminal cases, civil disputes, domestic violence issues, and cases involving children.
A student of the University of Guyana told Kaieteur News that the event “was good and informative because I was not aware that the Magistrate court offers so many services especially to juvenile offenders.”
