Justice Henderson joins Appeal Court

JUSTICE Geoffrey Henderson was appointed to the Court of Appeal on August 30, said a statement from the Office of the President later that day.

"In accordance with the advice of the Judicial and Legal Service Commission, Her Excellency Christine Carla Kangaloo, ORTT, President of the Republic of TT, appointed Justice Geoffrey Henderson a judge of the Court of Appeal today, August 30, 2024 at a ceremony held at the Office of the President. Chief Justice Justice Ivor Archie, ORTT, also attended the ceremony."

Henderson was admitted to the Bar in 1989 and then joined the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). He served as senior state counsel and assistant director of public prosecutions, and in 2001 he was appointed to head the San Fernando Office of the DPP.

The following year he became the DPP, serving in that role for six years.

Henderson was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of TT in 2009 and served there for five years. He was then selected as a judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague. He first served as an ad-hoc judge in the Appeal Division and then from 2014-2021 as a judge in the Trial Division.

Henderson returned to his position as a puisne judge in TT in 2021. From October 2023, he has been the co-chair of a working group of the UN/OAS Global Coalition to address Synthetic Drug Threats. Kangaloo congratulated Henderson on his appointment.

Interestingly, Henderson's service at The Hague was to complete the term of Anthony Carmona who had to leave the ICC to return to TT to become President of the Republic.

The Judicial and Legal Service Commission had allowed Henderson three years of no-pay leave to serve at the ICC, thereby retaining his seniority locally.

That court had been founded in 1998 after lobbying led by former prime minister and president the late Arthur NR Robinson.

The ICC website added details of Henderson's career, as a board member of the Judicial Education Institute of TT, a former associate tutor at the Sir Hugh Wooding Law School and chairman of a steering committee to roll-out a pilot Drug Treatment Court in TT.

He is a fellow of the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute, University of Nova Scotia. Henderson earned a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) and LLB at the University of the West Indies, and obtained a Legal Education Certificate at the Sir Hugh Wooding Law School, both in Trinidad.

The ICC website said Henderson's cases involved the countries of Bangladesh and Myanmar, Georgia and Bolivia, plus cases against several African figures including former Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta.