Analysis: Former colonies seek to overthrow British veto on death penalty

Colonial legacy: Caribbean nations prepare to overturn historic right of the Privy Council in London to act as their final court of appeal

Ever since the first British settlers colonised Barbados in 1625 the coral island's sweep of fine sandy beaches and warm blue waters has been known as one of the world's most desirable locations.

But what is now attracting a very different kind of international attention is the record on capital punishment of Barbados and neighbouring Caribbean states.

The last executions in Barbados took place in 1984 and the last hangings in Jamaica were carried out in 1988.

But Barbados has changed its constitution to allow hangings to take place as quickly as possible after the exhaustion of domestic appeals. That decision could have repercussions for the 17 convicts on death row in Barbados.

And other former British colonies in the region, confronted by a rising tide of violent crime, are taking steps to stop what they see as meddling by the UK's Privy Council in their right to put convicted criminals to death.

This week, Percival James Patterson, the Prime Minister of Jamaica (which had more than 1,000 murders last year and has 52 inmates on Death Row), pledged his commitment to amending the island's constitution to allow the resumption of hanging after a 1993 Privy Council decision had put a stop to executions.

Through hundreds of years of Commonwealth and judicial links the Privy Council, made up of members of the House of Lords, still performs the function of the final court of appeal for much of the English-speaking Caribbean.

In Jamaica's case the Privy Council's judicial committee had ruled it was inhumane to hang anyone who had been in prison for more than five years. The conditions on Death Row were also cited as a factor in the Privy Council decision.

Now the Caribbean Community (Caricom), a 15-nation grouping of Caribbean governments, is moving towards creating a Caribbean Court of Justice which would end the right of appeal of Death Row inmates in former British Caribbean territories to the judicial committee of the Privy Council.

Barbados and Jamaica are already working to introduce domestic legislation aimed at circumventing rulings by the Privy Council.

Human rights groups led by Amnesty International are appalled. Amnesty recently intervened in the case of four inmates whose planned executions had been fast-tracked through the Barbados courts.

The convicted murderers Michael McDonald Huggins, 27, Frederick Benjamin Atkins, 31, Lennox Ricardo Boyce, 25, and Jeffrey Joseph, 27, were all due to hang in July before they had exhausted their avenues of appeal.

Death warrants were read to the four men on 26 June, after the rejection of their petitions for clemency by the country's Mercy Committee.

Since then international pressure has been brought to bear and the Barbados government has withdrawn the death warrants, although the men remain on Death Row.

The Caricom initiative has raised fears that the new court will become "a hanging court". But it reflects the deeply felt frustrations of the governments of many of the Caribbean countries where capital punishment is popular with the voting public who see it as the most effective means of combating violent crime.

The principal focus of this irritation is directed at Britain and its Privy Councillors.

Noting that a two-thirds majority was needed in both Jamaica's House of Representatives and the Senate in order to effect the change, Mr Patterson, who believes hangings are an effective deterrent against crime, urged bipartisan support. He pointed to Barbados, with a similar constitution, which had effected a similar change, the Opposition supporting the Government on the matter.

Speaking in Kingston at his party's headquarters, he said: "We therefore believe as do most of the other countries in the Caribbean that still subscribe to the Privy Council ... that nothing short of a constitutional amendment will be required."

Shelagh Simmons, co-ordinator of Caribbean Justice, which campaigns on behalf of Death Row prisoners, said: "It appears to be no accident that elections are imminent in both Barbados and Jamaica. Both countries have problems with violent crime and the death penalty is a popular vote-winner with the electorate."

Amnesty International also notes that surveys indicate that the majority of Caribbean citizens support capital punishment.

Irene Khan, secretary general of Amnesty International, wrote an open letter to the Barbados people last month, expressing concern at how their government was introducing laws which would stop condemned prisoners from challenging their executions in court.

She said: "Public support for the taking of human life by the state cannot be used as a justification. Numerous human rights abuses committed across the globe have enjoyed the support of the majority of citizens."

Some argue that the Privy Council, as a final court of appeal in civil cases, gives Caribbean judicial systems international credibility on the world stage. Foreign investors are more likely to do business with countries where there is a right of appeal to a court whose jurisprudence has been recognised and trusted for hundreds of years.

In March this year the Privy Council once again provoked irritation when it struck down the mandatory death penalty in three murder cases.

The Privy Council also ruled that sentences should be set by a judge and not a jury.

The senior law lord Lord Bingham of Cornhill said then: "In a crime of this kind, there may well be matters relating both to the offence and the offender which ought properly to be considered before sentence is passed. To deny the offender the opportunity, before sentence is passed, to seek to persuade the court that in all the circumstances to condemn him to death would be disproportionate and inappropriate is to treat him as no human being should be treated and thus to deny him his basic humanity."

How Britain kept its influence

Britain retains judicial influence over the courts in Caribbean countries because of the development and evolution of its Commonwealth.

When Britain had an empire the laws of its many territories were made and enacted through powers granted by Westminster.

Since then many Caribbean countries have gained independence, but have chosen to keep the British justice system and a final binding right of appeal to the judicial committee of the Privy Council.

The committee, whose membership is made up of law lords, still sits at Downing Street where it hears about 70 appeals a year. According to the most recent statistics Jamaica, with seven appeals, is the Caribbean country that makes most use of the court.

Trinidad and Tobago is an independent republic within the Commonwealth and its appeals lie direct to the judicial committee. In these cases the Privy Council's rulings are enforceable as orders of the Court of Appeal of Trinidad and Tobago.