Headlines, Human Rights, Latin America & the Caribbean

RIGHTS-JAMAICA: Amnesty Int’l Alarmed over Fate of Human Rights

Estrella Gutierrez

CARACAS, Jan 6 1998 (IPS) - Amnesty International expressed alarm Tuesday over Jamaica’s announced withdrawal from the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, planned for Jan. 22, and the resultant consequences for human rights in the Caribbean island nation.

The Venezuelan branch of Amnesty called on the international community to attempt to keep the government of Percival Patterson from making good on its threat to pull out of the Protocol of the Covenant, which protects fundamental human rights.

Amnesty director in Venezuela Marcos Gomez said the Jamaican government told UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Oct. 23 that it had decided to withdraw from the humanitarian accord, an unprecedented move.

The withdrawal would mean Jamaican citizens would lose the possibility of taking recourse to the UN Human Rights Committee to demand reparations in cases of violations of the rights covered by the Covenant.

Although Amnesty did not explain the reasons set forth by the Patterson administration, other sources told IPS that the underlying problem was the government’s interest in expediting the execution of death row prisoners, whose executions are delayed by appeals to the UN Committee and the Organisation of American States’ Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

There are currently 49 people on death row in Jamaica. An additional 101 have had the death penalty commuted to life sentences or lesser sentences, thanks partly to pressure by the two committees.

Jamaica’s legal and prison systems have come in for harsh criticism from international human rights groups, both inter- governmental and non-governmental. Jamaican law establishes a five- year maximum timeframe for death sentences to be carried out.

Attorney General Ramesh Maharaj in neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago has indicated that he is “studying the route taken by Jamaica,” which could set off a “domino effect” in the Caribbean.

Patterson denounced the Protocol without consulting parliament, after having imposed an impossibly short eight-month deadline for the hearing of death penalty applications before the two international committees – a measure that human rights activists described as an abuse of authority.

“Jamaica’s withdrawal would be a serious step backwards, because it threatens to undermine the international system of protection of human rights,” says a document drawn up by the Venezuelan branch of Amnesty.

The consequences would not only be very negative for Jamaicans, but for the whole world, Amnesty adds.

The Covenant on Civil and Political Rights was approved in 1966 along with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The two treaties establish the regulations for the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Covenant, which has been signed by 124 countries, went into effect in 1976, the Venezuelan Programme of Education-Action in Human Rights told IPS.

It protects the right to life, freedom, security, to not be tortured or arbitrarily detained, to vote, to a trial with guarantees, freedom of expression, association, gathering, circulation, and to protection for minorities.

The Optional Protocol of the Covenant has been signed by 74 countries. Jamaica would be the first to withdraw. A second Protocol, which aims to abolish the death penalty, has been signed by only 20 countries.

Gomez said Amnesty reports indicate that hundreds of civilians have died in Jamaica at the hands of police and security forces in recent years, often in circumstances which clearly suggest abuse of force or extrajudicial executions.

Detainees have been mistreated, and some have died in custody. “Trials have been manifestly unfair,” even in cases in which the accused face capital punishment, Amnesty adds.

The Geneva-based UN Human Rights Committee said in October that the Jamaican legal system was not functioning properly, and that the government was aware of the situation.

It also criticised the Jamaican government for failing to draw up the five-yearly reports that the Covenant requires of signatory countries.

The Committee was created in 1977 to oversee the application of the Covenant and the Protocol, which empowers it to examine complaints of violations of the rights covered by the Covenant and other accords. It is comprised of 18 members who act on their own account, and in its three annual sessions it examines reports filed by the signatory states on measures adopted to promote and respect human rights.

The crisis with Jamaica emerged during the latest session.

The Venezuelan branch of Amnesty said the withdrawal would be a frontal attack on the international community’s aspirations to strengthen the treaties that protect human rights under the auspices of the United Nations.

 
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