CCJ President arrives ahead of swearing-in ceremony for Justice Bulkan

– to meet with political parties, other officials

President of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), Justice Winston Anderson, has arrived in Guyana to witness the swearing-in of Justice Arif Bulkan as a Judge of the CCJ on Thursday. Bulkan is set to take the oath of office before President Dr Irfaan Ali on Thursday at the Office of the President.

Justice Bulkan is the third Guyanese national to sit on the CCJ bench. Attorney General (AG) Anil Nandlall stated on Tuesday that the swearing-in ceremony will be conducted in keeping with the tradition of the CCJ, which allows Judges of the court to be sworn in within their home jurisdictions.
“It is the tradition that Judges of that court take the oath of office in the jurisdiction from which they emanate. So, Justice Bulkan is a Guyanese, and we are proud of him,” the AG added.
During the CCJ President’s visit to Guyana between October 14 and 17, 2025, he is expected to meet with President Irfaan Ali, Acting Chancellor of the Judiciary Justice Roxane George, Attorney General Anil Nandlall, CARICOM Secretary-General Dr Carla Barnett, and representatives of We Invest in Nationhood (WIN), A Partnership for National Unity (APNU)’s Parliamentary Group, and the Forward Guyana Movement (FGM).
Dr Bulkan, a graduate of the University of the West Indies (UWI) with a Bachelor of Laws, also holds a Legal Education Certificate from the Hugh Wooding Law School, a Master of Laws from University College London, and a Doctorate in Philosophy of Law from Osgoode Hall Law School, York University.
His career spans litigation, academia, authorship, and international legal work. He was admitted to the Guyana Bar in 1990 and served in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions until 1996, reaching the post of Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions.
He later entered private practice until 2004. Justice Bulkan also sat on the Court of Appeal of Guyana in 2018 and has been serving as a Judge of the Court of Appeal of Belize since May 2022. From 2008 to 2022, he was a lecturer at the UWI Faculty of Law.
His international work includes serving as a member of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Committee, where he was Vice Chairperson from 2019 to 2022, and his current role as a commissioner and Second Vice-President (VP) of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, to which he was elected in June 2023.
Justice Bulkan is also a published scholar on indigenous rights, human rights, and constitutional law. His works include “The Survival of Indigenous Rights in Guyana” (2012) and “Fundamentals of Caribbean Constitutional Law”, co-authored in 2015 with a second edition released in 2021. His contributions earned him the Anthony Sabga Caribbean Award for Public and Civic Contributions in 2017, as well as recognition as a PANCAP/CARICOM Champion for Change that same year.