in the criminal law appeal to the Court of Appeal and to the Judicial
Committee:
"... If the contravention alleged was not the subject of the criminal law
appeals, ex hypothesi, those appeals could hardly constitute an adequate
remedy for that contravention. The decision of the Committee would
render meaningless and nugatory the hard earned constitutional rights of
Jamaicans and persons in Jamaica, by its failure to distinguish between
the right to appeal against the verdict and sentence of the court in a
criminal case, and the 'brand new right' to apply for constitutional
redress granted in 1962."
6.2 The State party submits that the admissibility decision attaches undue
significance to the fact that the Jamaican courts have not yet had occasion to
rule on the application of the proviso to section 25 (2) of the Constitution
in circumstances where the applicant has already exhausted his criminal law
appellate remedies. It notes that in the case of Hoel Riley v. The Queen
[A.G. (1982) 3 AER 469], Mr. Siley was able to apply, after the dismissal of
his criminal appeal by the Court of Appeal and the Privy Council/ to the
Constitutional Court for redress ana thereafter to the Court of Appeal and the
Privy Council/ although unsuccessfully. In the State party's opinion, this
precedent illustrates that recourse to criminal law appellate remedies does
not render the proviso of section 25 (2) applicable in situations where,
following criminal law appeals, an individual files for constitutional
redress.
6.3 Furthermore, the State party challenges the Committee's interpretation of
the relationship between section 25 (2) and a fundamental human right
protected by chapter three of the Jamaican Constitution! even if
chapter three of the Constitution grants a specific right, such as protection
from arbitrary arrest or detention (sect. 15), the Committee would test the
applicability of section 25 (2) in relation to the Supreme Court's powers
regarding the right of an individual to seeK enforcement and protection of
such a right; since that specific question had not been the subject of
judicial determination by the domestic courts, the Committee would be able to
conclude that the remedy does not exist and is not available. In the State
party's opinion, this approach has the result that the Committee would
conclude that many of the rights set forth in the Jamaican and Westminster
Model Constitutions are not existent or not available, on the ground that the
issue of the applicability of section 25 (2) had not been subject to judicial
determination by the courts.
6.4 In respect of the absence of legal aid for the filing of constitutional
motions, the State party submits that nothing in the Optional Protocol or in
customary international law would support the contention that an individual is
relieved of the obligation to exhaust domestic remedies on the grounds that
there is no provision for legal aid and that his indigence has prevented him
from resorting to an available remedy. In this connection, the State party
observes that the Covenant only imposes a duty to provide legal aid in respect
of criminal offences (art. 14, para. 3 (d)). Furthermore, international
conventions dealing with economic, social and cultural rights do not impose an
unqualified obligation on States to implement such rights: article 2 of the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Eights, for instance,
provides for the progressive realization of economic rights and relates to the
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