Vivian Crawford (second left), executive director, the Institute of Jamaica (IOJ), entertains Dr Don Baker (left), political officer at the US Embassy in St Andrew, and Katherine Rafaniello (right) and Bianca Obllins, the embassy's vice-consuls, at the IOJ Oct 22, 2009. - Norman Grindley/Chief PhotographerMeanwhile the US accepts New Hate Crime Bill to include GLBT people, how ironic?
Kimesha Walters
AN AMERICAN political officer is lauding Jamaica for creating a Charter of Rights Bill, saying it was healthy for an emerging economy to recognise the rights of its citizens. The officer also pointed to the possibility of an improved relationship with the United States given the push for a new charter.
Dr Don Baker says the United States has a similar policy, and he suspects that the Jamaican format will be similar.
However, he noted that there is no single way of being a democracy.
Baker revealed that despite tarnishes due to crime and violence, the country has maintained a good report in the US Embassy's annual human-rights reports, specifically in the area democracy.
"Jamaica respects the human rights of its citizens, for the most part. It has some challenges in terms of crime and those things but we're hopeful that Jamaica will continue to address these issues," Baker told The Gleaner after a presentation at the Institute of Jamaica (IOJ) yesterday.
The political officer is responsible for drafting the annual human-rights report at the US Embassy. To complete that report, Dr Baker looks at several factors such as the rule of law, freedom of speech, freedom of the press and religious liberty. These, he says, provide an assessment for how well Jamaica is doing in providing for its citizens' human rights.
Baker said the importance of the report can be seen in the reactions of countries, such as China, to negative comments.
"It's not as a direct result of the report, but countries that are not democratic do not respect the rights of their citizens, don't have as close ties with the US as with democratic nations," Baker explained.
"Oftentimes, there might be sanctions or penalties for countries that abuse their citizens or don't recognise their rights," said Baker.
ENDS
my two cents:
Have the US Embassy people realised that GLBT people are ignored?
Maybe we have to lobby them to bring pressure to bear on the government this is of course excluding the smoke screen debate on gay marriage as invented by the gay christian right movement, namely the Lawyers Christian Fellowship
Peace and tolerance.
H
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2 comments:
Guess we are going to have to let some of these people know that the Charter of Rights deprives LGBTs of at least one important potential right: that of marriage (whcih everyone else takes for granted), and leaves us worse of than before. Only in Jamaica!
the funny thing though is that marriage was never a part of the discussion, the anti gay lobby find every hint in the original draft that shows orientation and had them removed for eg the "gender" was replaced with the word "sex" because a christian group thought it would have implications for marriage law and raising children.
So anything that would give lgbt people an edge or some rights was and is blocked during the debates over the 17 years the bill has been in the making
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