The Right to Form Their Own Legislative Assembly

1831: The Right to Freely Choose One’s Representatives at Genuine Periodic Elections in the Cayman Islands.

In 1831, the people of the Cayman Islands asserted the right to form their own legislative assembly.  During a meeting held at Pedro St. James, the people of the Cayman Islands resolved to elect representatives for the various districts who, alongside the appointed Magistrates, formed a legislature responsible for passing local laws for better government.

The right to freely choose one’s representatives at genuine periodic elections is now enshrined in Article 21 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in 1948; some 117 years after the people of the Cayman Islands asserted the right that is now found in Article 21 of this Universal Declaration.  Described by Pope John Paul II as “one of the highest expressions of the human conscience of our time,” the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is generally considered to be part of customary international law, which in turn informs the common law of many jurisdictions, including the Cayman Islands.  Based on the principle that all human beings are born free and are equal in dignity and containing such rights, as the right to freely choose one’s representative at genuine periodic elections, which is the cornerstone of any democracy, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is therefore distinctly relevant to the Cayman Islands.