Women Lawyers Association elects new President, executive

The Guyana Association of Women Lawyers (GAWL) has elected, at its Annual General Meeting (AGM), a new executive committee to serve for the fiscal year 2017/2018.

A release details that the new executive consists of President Gaitree Ramona

Rookhum, Vice President Shellon Boyce, Secretary Chandrawattie Persaud, Treasurer Alanna Lall, and Assistant Secretary Treasurer Nekeisha Persaud.

The Committee Members will be Jaya Singh-Backreedy, Denise Hodge, Coleen Sparman-Stephen and Anita Mohan-Hamilton.

The release noted that these lawyers all come from a solid legal background. The new President was admitted to the bar in 2008, where she joined the Chambers of Messrs Hughes, Fields and Stoby and is currently an associate of Richard B. Fields, Esq, SC, and is practising general civil law.

She takes over at the helm as the Association celebrates its 30-year anniversary, being founded in 1987 by the now retired Honourable Madame Justice Desiree Bernard, the first female judge of the Caribbean Court of Justice. Its charter secretary then was the late Deborah Jan Backer.

Through the past three decades, the Association has been led by Sheila Chapman, Pearlene Roach, Claudette La Bennett, Susan Moore, Anande Trotman, Rose Benjamin-Noble, Roxane George, Rose Cadogan, Sandra Bart, Dale Kingston, Gem Sanford-Johnson, Sandra Kurtzious, Emily Dodson, Simone Morris Ramlall and most recently Sadie Amin.

The Association is known for its publication of books such as ‘the Law and You’; ‘the Constitution and You’ as well as ‘Local Government and You’. These are all books designed to be user-friendly and to explain prevalent laws and procedures in layman’s terms.

Its annual activities also include educational and humanitarian outreaches to women and children, visits to inmates at the women’s prison in New Amsterdam, and continuing legal education workshops for members.

The GAWL was founded in 1987 with the aim of giving legal advice and assistance to women in society. Justice Desiree Bernard, a former Justice of the Caribbean Court of Justice, was instrumental in forming the association.

Justice Bernard, who was then a Puisne Judge, saw the need for an association which would seek to address the concerns of women in relation to legal issues that affected them. The founder members were Justice Bernard, Ms Elvy Edwards, Ms Sheila Chapman, Ms Deborah Osman-Backer, Ms Carole James-Boston, Ms Birnie Stephenson, Ms Josephine Whitehead, and the late Mrs Pearlene Roach.

The Association is a voluntary organisation and it is not compulsory for women lawyers to be members of the Association. Of the approximately 125 women lawyers in Guyana currently, about one-third are members of the Association. Some of these lawyers are also members of the Guyana Bar Association, the membership of which is also voluntary.

Membership of this organisation is open to all women lawyers, whether they are members of the judiciary or magistracy, state counsel or in private practice.

With a motto of “Women Supporting Justice and Equality”, the Association has worked over the years to promote women’s rights and issues, especially as they relate to property rights and violence against women.