AI governance through Caribbean constitutions

April 21, 2026·2 min read

Dear Editor,

With the AI-driven Fourth Industrial Revolution now in full swing, artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly becoming embedded in policing, healthcare, employment, and other critical areas of social life. While the Commonwealth Caribbean lags behind more technologically developed regions in AI uptake and deployment, there have been discernible movements toward a measured socio-technical integration of AI across the region.

Thus far, at least one Commonwealth Caribbean constabulary force has publicly stated its intentions to deploy facial recognition technologies (FRTs) in the fulfilment of its mandate to “serve and protect”. Despite this commendable thrust towards modernising crime-fighting strategies, commercial FRTs have unfortunately gained notoriety due to their propensity for misidentifying people of color and women at markedly higher rates, which has led to multiple wrongful arrests and detentions overseas. In small Commonwealth Caribbean states, even wrongful arrests and detentions can occasion significant stigmatisation and ostracism within the wider society.

Given the stakes involved when high-risk AI systems such as FRTs are deployed by institutional actors, the necessity of centring human rights standards and AI ethics principles in AI governance has never been more crucial. At present, the Commonwealth Caribbean notably lacks dedicated human rights-centred AI governance regimes, which can take years to develop and promulgate through regional legislatures. This deficiency has produced a glaring AI governance gap that renders fundamental rights acutely vulnerable to algorithmic violation, especially where high-risk AI systems are deployed in sensitive contexts. It is therefore imperative that our region conceptualises creative, yet pragmatic, approaches to AI governance. To this end, I propose a reimagining of our Commonwealth Caribbean Independence Constitutions—the supreme law and central organizing bedrock of all Commonwealth Caribbean polities—as localized human rights-grounded AI governance regimes that can be repurposed and tailored, through interpretive ingenuity, to safeguard constitutional rights from algorithmic violations in an increasingly digitalised era.

Such a reimagining presents what I have termed “constitutionalized AI governance” as a modest interpretive response to regulatory gaps produced by rapid technological advancement, which neither seeks to supplant legislative action nor promote judicial activism. My forthcoming article titled “AI Ethics as a Human Rights Imperative in the Digital Age: Prospects for Constitutionalized AI Governance in the Commonwealth Caribbean” explores in more detail the premise and prospects for constitutionalized AI governance in the Commonwealth Caribbean.^[1]

As presciently articulated by former president of the Caribbean Court of Justice, Justice Adrian Saunders^[2], “if the Emancipation Proclamation was our birth certificate, then our Independence Constitutions can be likened to the document that marks our coming of age, but with Independence, with adulthood, our Independence Constitutions have not only enhanced rights but also new responsibilities…” By reimagining our Independence Constitutions as localized human rights-grounded AI governance frameworks to address our region’s unique challenges, we are endeavouring to mark our “coming of age” within the AI governance arena.

Sincerely,
Amanda Janell DeAmor Quest
Commonwealth Caribbean Lawyer, LLB (1st Class Hons), LEC

References

AI Ethics as a Human Rights Imperative in the Digital Age: Prospects for Constitutionalized AI Governance in the Commonwealth Caribbean

Amanda Janell DeAmor Quest

Congratulations Adrian Saunders! Reflecting on the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ)

www.searchlight.vc · 2025-06-13

Congratulations Adrian Saunders! Reflecting on the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) - Searchlight Searchlight Logo ... * Interactive Media Ltd * St. Vincent & the Grenadines * Subscribe * * Dr. Fraser- Point of View June 13, 2025 # Congratulations Adrian Saunders! Reflecting on the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) On Tuesday, June, 3 the Caribbean Court of Justice held a special ceremonial sitting at Queen’s Hall in Trinidad and Tobago to “honour and celebrate a consequential Caribbean Jurist”, as one Jurist put it. The Jurist to whom they were referring was Justice Adrian Saunders who was retiring as President of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). His tenure as president started on July 4, 2018. I have to single out for those who are unaware of this, that he is a Vincentian. ... some Ambassadors. The focus was on his tenure with the CCJ and particularly his position as president. Most of the ... president. He was depicted as a man of integrity, honesty and humility, was considered a beacon of intellectual brilliance, formidable intellect, clarity of thought, having a passion for judicial education and reform. His commitment to social justice and his rich legacy to Caribbean jurisprudence and by extension to the CCJ were ... Justice Saunders was among the third cohort of students from the Cave Hill Law School, graduated from Hugh Wooding Law School in 1977. So, he has provided 48 years of legal services, including 19 years in private practice, before being ... at which he spent 20 years, and was seen as being instrumental in shaping its foundation. In his address to the gathering Justice Saunders noted the references to his passion for justice, fairness for democracy, decolonisation and self determination and felt that for those he owed much to the example and experience of his parents. He singled out the role of his father in a three-day Teachers’ strike in 1954. His father was president of ... measures, was removed from the school he headed to a rural school. This had a serious effect on his mother, remembering that Adrian was born in 1954. Justice Saunders’ comment about the CCJ as an Appellate Court is worth reflecting on. He stated “…. if you wish to know the true opinion of CARICOM’s states about the CCJ don’t count the number of states that have acceded to the Appellate jurisdiction… That is pure politics, untidy, disappointing, and sometimes frustrating politics. Look instead at the ... judgements…. The CCJ is by no means perfect but if over the last 20 years the Court had failed any of the severe challenges placed before it we would certainly have heard it loud and clear again and again … “We have to remember that the CCJ has two jurisdictions- an Original that involves the interpretation and application of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, and an Appellate jurisdiction making it the final court of Appeal, a replacement for the Privy Council. It should be noted that only Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Guyana and Saint Lucia have accepted the CCJ as their final Court of Appeal. Can we really consider ourselves as independent countries if we still hang on to our once ‘Mother Country’s’ Privy Council to be the final adjudicator over civil and criminal cases? It is ironic that while the president of the CCJ is a Vincentian whom we admire for his honesty and integrity, and legal acumen we have made little effort outside the failed Constitutional Reform attempt to discuss and enlighten our citizens on it. This is an issue that demands more time, and I promise to come back to it. In 2010 serving as head of ... “Today

Source

Towards Constitutionalized AI Governance in the Commonwealth Caribbean in Village Voice News, April 21, 2026

AI governance through Caribbean constitutions — Amanda Janell DeAmor Quest — Opinion