Jamaican human rights lawyer admitted to local Bar

A 39-year-old Jamaican Attorney-at-law, Malene Chagni Alleyne, who has a passion for promoting human rights and Caribbean integration, was admitted to the Guyana Bar on Tuesday by High Court Judge Damone Younge.

Her petition was presented by eminent lawyer Vidushi Persaud-McKinnon, in association with lawyer Siand Dhurjon. In giving the court insight into Alleyne’s life, the petitioners told the court that she completed the two-year course for the Legal Education Certificate (LEC) at the Norman Manley Law School in Jamaica.
They said that she is currently an Attorney-at-law in good standing at the Supreme Court of Jamaica, having been admitted to practise there back in 2011. After her admission to the Jamaican Bar, she joined the law firm of Myers, Fletcher, and Gordon, where she worked as an associate from 2011 to 2013.
Thereafter, she joined the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Washington, D.C., where she worked until 2016 as a human rights specialist, carrying out the initial evaluation of petitions against Organisation of American States’ (OAS) member states, trained interns and fellows, and received an award for outstanding performance in 2016.
Alleyne was involved as a researcher from July to October 2017 at the Harvard International Human Rights Clinic, Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she assisted with the litigation of Mamani et al v. Sánchez de Lozada and Sánchez Berzaín.
This was an alien tort statute case against the former President of Bolivia and his Minister of Defence for their roles in the commission of crimes against humanity. She conducted legal research, prepared memoranda and legal briefs of Spanish language documents.
Persaud-McKinnon also spoke of the lawyer’s other notable involvements as a legal consultant at Avocats Sans Frontières in Canada from July to August 2018, where she conducted a mission to Haiti to coordinate a project related to seeking justice for victims of crimes against humanity committed during the dictatorship period.
Persaud-McKinnon, who has thus far enjoyed 20 years of practice at the local Bar, indicated she would tell young lawyers the importance of reading, researching, and knowing where to find the law. She said that Alleyne has mastered this, having conducted research and prepared documents in English and French, and worked from October to December 2017 at the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, Washington, D.C., as a Refugee Status Determination Associate.
Currently, Alleyne is the founder and executive director of Freedom Imaginaries Limited, based in Kingston, Jamaica.
Justice Younge granted her petition to practise law in, and before, the court of Guyana. The Judge then offered Alleyne words of advice based on her decades of esteemed service.
Alleyne, in an invited statement, said: “It was an honour to be called to the Guyana Bar by Ms. Vidushi Persaud-McKinnon. I was so moved by the words of encouragement from the Hon. Madam Justice Damone Younge, who also reminded me of my important duty to the bench and the bar, and to the people of Guyana.
“I look forward to working with the Guyanese community and the wider Caribbean region to advance human rights through the law. Together, we can build a region in which every person lives in equal dignity and harmony with nature,” she added.