Originally published in NOW Grenada, The New Today and The Grenadian Voice on 24. October, 2024.
With the passage of the second annual National Heroes Day on 19 October many Grenadians have not been remiss in remarking on the curious situation regarding the lack of naming any National Heroes.
This was an issue among others addressed by Miss Jacqueline Alexis, the Chair of the National Celebrations Committee, on the 16 October edition of To The Point on the Grenada Broadcasting Network. On the program Miss Alexis alluded to the lack of an established committee in legislation to name National Heroes as a prominent issue which has been hampering the process alongside a generally lacking legislative framework.
Grenada’s current honours legislation is, to put it mildly, embarrassing. A review by the Grenada Monarchist League of the National Honours and Awards Act of 2007, which is the main piece of legislation governing our national honours system, has discovered numerous mistakes, errors and questionable provisions which make our honours system dysfunctional and in dire need of reform.
One of the most glaring issues our review has uncovered is in relation to the provisions regarding the Prestige Order of National Hero Commission, which is supposed to name our National Heroes. Appointments to the commission, surely because of a bizarre legislative oversight, are effectively lifetime appointments with no term length or ability for an appointed member to be removed. This makes the Commission entirely useless and is preventing the naming of National Heroes. The legislation also makes only very vague references to the criteria for naming a National Hero, without giving the commission any ability to define the criteria further. Further issues uncovered are that the act makes references to an office of “Grand Master”, which does not exist and has never been established in any legislation.
As if these embarrassing problems weren’t enough, Grenada in fact has a second piece of legislation on the books regarding honours: the Grenada National Honours Act of 1994. This act establishes many of the same awards as the 2007 National Honours Act, though in a different and even more confusing format. Often the 2007 and 1994 acts in fact directly contradict one another. This act should evidently have been repealed in 2007 but for some unknown reason remains on the books, creating utter chaos in our honours system.
At present our honours system is an embarrassment. It hampers the proper functioning of the system and is certainly preventing the naming of National Heroes.
The Grenada Monarchist League has thus drafted an honours reform bill, the National Honours, Awards and Heroes Bill, which we have presented to the government. This bill repeals the 1994 and 2007 acts and reforms our honours system into a proper system along international standards. It, alongside other needed reforms and corrections, establishes a new National Heroes Commission with a set term and the remit to, after consultations with government, opposition and the general public, establish concrete criteria for the naming of National Heroes. This was an issue the Prime Minister raised was necessary during his National Heroes Day speech.
We urge Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell and the government to, as swiftly as possible, enact the National Honours, Awards and Heroes Bill into law so that Grenadian citizens can hopefully in time for Independence Day in 2025 be duly honoured, and the National Heroes Commission can set about its much needed work to facilitate the naming of National Heroes on 19 October 2025.
Grenada Monarchist League 