Oscar D. Ramjeet is a Guyanese journalist and lawyer. He has served in a variety of positions throughout the Caribbean, including as Belize's Solicitor-General from 2009 to 2011.

Career

Ramjeet began his career as an attorney in private practice in his native

Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...

in 1970. From 1986 to 1988, Ramjeet served in

Montserrat Montserrat ( ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is part of the Leeward Islands, the northern portion of the Lesser Antilles chain of the West Indies. Montserrat is about long and wide, with r ...

as a magistrate as well as the Registrar of the High Court. Among other activities while there, he initiated a program to attempt to trace Canadians who purchased land at Spanish Point in the 1960s and 1970s. He took a trip to Toronto that year and was successful at finding thirty-two missing landowners. His career next took him to

St. Vincent and the Grenadines Saint Vincent and the Grenadines () is an island country in the Caribbean. It is located in the southeast Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, which lie in the West Indies at the southern end of the eastern border of the Caribbean Sea wh ...

, where he served as Solicitor General and acting

Director of Public Prosecutions The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is the office or official charged with the prosecution of criminal offences in several criminal jurisdictions around the world. The title is used mainly in jurisdictions that are or have been members o ...

. He remained there until 1993; the following year, he moved to the United States Virgin Islands where he first served as Assistant Attorney General before becoming an administrative law judge on Saint Thomas Island in 1997. In 2000, he moved to the British Virgin Islands and returned to private practice. One high-profile case he took on while there was the defence of Michael Spicer when he was charged with the murder of American model Lois McMillen in Tortola. Ramjeet was sworn in as Belize's Solicitor-General on 15 June 2009, filling the position that had been vacant for a year since the sudden departure of Tanya Herwanger after only five months on the job. Under his tenure, Belize began setting up the "Fast Track Court" in response to the increasing backlog of cases in the Magistrate's Court; the

Belize Bar Association Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...

expressed concern over the heavy executive branch influence on the Fast Track Court, which they saw as threatening

judicial independence Judicial independence is the concept that the judiciary should be independent from the other branches of government. That is, courts should not be subject to improper influence from the other branches of government or from private or partisan inte ...

. He also lobbied the Council of Legal Education to permit the admission of Belizean University of Guyana LL.B. students to Jamaica's Norman Manley Law School without the entrance exam; under a CARICOM-level agreement, the existing arrangement to facilitate UG graduates' entry to NMLS applied only to Guyanese nationals. He also oversaw the creation of the Office of International Legal Cooperation. He held the position of SG until his contract expired in 2011, and was succeeded by Cheryl Krusen.

Personal life

Ramjeet holds an LL.B. from the

University of the West Indies The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 17 English-speaking countries and territories in th ...

, a Caribbean Legal Education Certificate, and a diploma in journalism and public relations from West Germany. He also writes articles and columns for the ''

Stabroek News The ''Stabroek News'' is a privately owned newspaper published in Guyana. It takes its name from ''Stabroek'' , the former name of Georgetown, Guyana. It was first published in November 1986, first as a weekly but it later changed to a daily prin ...

'' and other Caribbean newspapers. One column he wrote in 2010, about the visit of President of Guyana Bharrat Jagdeo to the Afro-Guyanese village of Buxton, Guyana, led

David Hinds David Hinds (born 15 June 1956) is a British musician and the founding member, rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist for the reggae band Steel Pulse. Life and career Hinds was born in Handsworth, West Midlands, Handsworth, Birmingham, England, to ...

to accuse him of racism.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramjeet, Oscar Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 20th-century Guyanese lawyers Guyanese people of Indian descent Guyanese expatriates in Belize Solicitors-General of Belize University of the West Indies alumni 21st-century British Virgin Islands lawyers