The Caribbean Court of Jus­tice (CCJ) says it is deeply sad­dened by the death of Sir Shri­dath Ram­phal, de­scrib­ing him as a tow­er­ing fig­ure in diplo­ma­cy, law and in­ter­na­tion­al re­la­tions.

It said his lega­cy as a lawyer, diplo­mat and states­man has left an in­deli­ble mark on the Caribbean re­gion’s le­gal and diplo­mat­ic land­scape.

“Sir Shri­dath Ram­phal was a bea­con of wis­dom and in­tegri­ty,” the CCJ said in a state­ment yes­ter­day.

“His lead­er­ship and vi­sion were in­stru­men­tal in shap­ing the course of Caribbean in­te­gra­tion and the de­vel­op­ment of our re­gion­al le­gal frame­works.”

Sir Shri­dath died on Au­gust 30 at the age of 95.

The re­gion­al court added that Sir Shri­dath’s tenure as Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al of the Com­mon­wealth and his piv­otal role as chair of the West In­di­an Com­mis­sion un­der­scored his un­wa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to re­gion­al uni­ty.

It said his vi­sion ex­tend­ed be­yond po­lit­i­cal and eco­nom­ic ties and he cham­pi­oned the cre­ation of ro­bust le­gal sys­tems that pro­tect­ed the rights of all Caribbean cit­i­zens.

The CCJ not­ed that his tire­less ad­vo­ca­cy for es­tab­lish­ing a Caribbean fi­nal ap­pel­late court and a court to in­ter­pret the Re­vised Treaty of Ch­aguara­mas was foun­da­tion­al to the CCJ’s in­cep­tion.

“His pas­sion for jus­tice and eq­ui­ty was ev­i­dent in every­thing he did,” the CCJ said.

“Sir Shri­dath’s work was not just about law, but about en­sur­ing fair­ness and dig­ni­ty for every in­di­vid­ual in the Caribbean.”

The CCJ ex­tend­ed its deep­est con­do­lences to Sir Shri­dath’s fam­i­ly, friends and col­leagues.

“We share in the pro­found sense of loss felt by so many. Yet, we al­so cel­e­brate his life and the ex­tra­or­di­nary lega­cy he leaves be­hind.”

The CCJ said it will re­main com­mit­ted to up­hold­ing the ideals Sir Shri­dath cham­pi­oned.

“His lega­cy will guide us as we con­tin­ue to work to­wards re­al­is­ing his vi­sion of a unit­ed and just Caribbean,” the CCJ con­clud­ed.