HGP Nightly News – Attorney General Anil Nandlall says Guyana is pursuing an ambitious overhaul of its criminal justice system, arguing that the country must modernise how it fights crime, manages evidence, tracks offenders and moves cases through the courts as criminal threats grow more serious across the region.
Speaking at the opening of the Partnership of the Caribbean and the European Union on Justice, or PACE Justice programme, Nandlall said the reforms now underway are not isolated measures, but part of a broader push to transform the justice sector through legislative change, digitalisation and institutional strengthening. He also warned that crime in the Caribbean is now being viewed at the highest regional level as a “public health hazard,” underscoring the urgency of coordinated action.
According to the Attorney General, one of the biggest problems slowing the criminal justice system has been the persistence of weak data capture, paper-based operations and limited digital integration across key agencies. He said these long-standing deficiencies have delayed the work of investigators, prosecutors and the courts, and that government is now trying to close those gaps through technology and legal reform.
As part of that effort, he said agencies are already benefiting from new digital tools that will help with faster document preparation, recording of testimony in Magistrates’ Courts and improved communication between institutions.
Nandlall also pointed to earlier reforms that he said are already improving efficiency, including the Restorative Justice Act and the abolition of preliminary inquiries through the Criminal Law Procedure (Paper Committals) Act. He said these measures are helping reduce delay and move criminal cases through the system more effectively, while Guyana is also expanding restorative justice services, with offices already operating in six regions and plans for nationwide coverage by the end of the year.
A major part of the Government’s next phase of reform, he said, includes new legislation and registries. Among the measures now in the pipeline are amendments to the Sexual Offences Act to create a sex offenders registry, as well as a new Evidence Bill designed to bring Guyana’s courts into line with modern technological realities.
Nandlall noted that Guyana is still operating under the colonial-era Evidence Act of 1893, and said the new bill will allow for easier admission of computer-generated documents and other modern forms of evidence into court proceedings.
He also highlighted efforts to build a centralised traffic offenders registry, beginning with data input from the Guyana Police Force and supported by a Canadian consultant. That system, he said, will allow magistrates to see an offender’s prior traffic history in real time, making it easier to identify repeat offenders and impose penalties more consistently under the law.
Nandlall said the aim is to close the gap that now exists when a person appears before the court but their full record is not immediately available.
Looking beyond domestic reform, Nandlall said Guyana is also preparing for emerging threats such as cybercrime and is engaged at the international level in discussions around a global cybercrime treaty. He further disclosed that updated anti-money laundering legislation is also being planned ahead of Guyana’s next evaluation by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force in 2027.
The Attorney General’s remarks frame the Government’s justice agenda as one of the most far-reaching modernisation efforts now underway in the public sector. From criminal procedure and digital records to evidence law, cybercrime and trafficking registries, the overall message was that Guyana’s legal system can no longer afford to operate with outdated tools in the face of increasingly complex criminal threats.
