Pho­to: From Left -Chief Med­ical Of­fi­cer, Dr Nar­ine Singh; UNICEF Area Rep­re­sen­ta­tive (ag) of Guyana and Suri­name, Gabriel Vock­el; At­tor­ney Gen­er­al and Min­is­ter of Le­gal Af­fairs, Mo­hab­ir Anil Nand­lall SC and Chan­cel­lor of the Ju­di­cia­ry (ag), Yo­nette Cum­mings-Ed­ward (Pho­to cour­tesy CANA)

Guyana has launched its first-ever men­tal health court aimed at im­prov­ing ac­cess to jus­tice and treat­ment for peo­ple with men­tal health con­di­tions.

“The open­ing of the men­tal health court is an out­stand­ing tes­ti­mo­ny to the evo­lu­tion and ma­tu­ri­ty of our so­ci­ety to holis­ti­cal­ly ad­dress the is­sue of men­tal health in Guyana. Par­tic­u­lar­ly, this court will help us to deal with de­fen­dants whose men­tal ill­ness may have con­tributed to the com­mis­sion of a crime said, At­tor­ney Gen­er­al and Min­is­ter of Le­gal  Af­fairs, Anil Nand­lall.

He fur­ther not­ed that it com­ple­ments the pol­i­cy ground­works, phi­los­o­phy and pro­vi­sions of the Men­tal Health Pro­tec­tion and Pro­mo­tion Act 2022.

“This is on­ly the be­gin­ning. We may have to do leg­is­la­tion that will gov­ern how the court op­er­ates. And we may have to make rules that will reg­u­late the pro­ce­dur­al as­pects of the court. I want to as­sure the ju­di­cia­ry that the Gov­ern­ment of Guyana, and in par­tic­u­lar the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Cham­bers, re­mains stead­fast­ly ready to as­sist in that re­gard.”

The au­thor­i­ties here said that the court, which will use ther­a­peu­tic ju­rispru­dence (TJ), will op­er­ate out of the George­town Mag­is­trates’ Court.

TJ is a phi­los­o­phy that de­ter­mines how rules, pro­ce­dures, and the be­hav­iour of le­gal pro­fes­sion­als im­pact the psy­cho­log­i­cal well-be­ing of in­di­vid­u­als in­volved in the ju­di­cial sys­tem.

The court was es­tab­lished through sup­port from the Unit­ed Na­tions Chil­dren’s Fund (UNICEF), the Unit­ed States Em­bassy, the ju­di­cia­ry and the Guyana gov­ern­ment.

Nand­lall said that the ju­di­cia­ry must be com­pli­ment­ed for tak­ing a bold step to es­tab­lish a spe­cialised court that seeks to en­sure in­di­vid­u­als liv­ing with men­tal health ill­ness are af­ford­ed the ap­pro­pri­ate treat­ment and sup­port.

The act­ing UNICEF Area Rep­re­sen­ta­tive to Guyana and Suri­name, Gabriel Vock­el, said the pi­lot­ing of the court is the be­gin­ning of a new ju­di­cial process, and a new era in how Guyana re­sponds to men­tal health in­jus­tice with com­pas­sion, hope and dig­ni­ty.

Vock­el not­ed that UNICEF stands proud­ly with the gov­ern­ment and all its part­ners on this mo­men­tous oc­ca­sion.

“We are ho­n­oured to have pro­vid­ed the tech­ni­cal as­sis­tance and fund­ing to help make this court a re­al­i­ty and to sup­port the role of the jus­tice sys­tem that is tru­ly in­clu­sive, re­ha­bil­i­ta­tive and child-sen­si­tive,” Vock­el said.

GEORGE­TOWN, Guyana, Jun 29, CMC –  

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