"Guyana's move to opt out of this important human rights treaties is part of a disturbing trend in the Caribbean region. Unfortunately, all Guyanese citizens lose when their government won't allow international review of its human rights practices. We hope that the National Assembly will reject this proposal."
- Sarah DeCosse
Caribbean Researcher for
Human Rights Watch
November 16, 1998
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Letter to Guyana's Foreign Minister
Washington D.C.,Monday, November 16, 1998
Foreign Affairs Minister Clement Rohee
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Takuba Lodge
South Row, New Garden Street
Georgetown, Guyana
Honorable Foreign Minister:
We are writing to express our profound regret that your government plans to withdraw from the First Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). When Guyana became a party to the First Optional Protocol in 1993, Guyanese citizens were afforded the opportunity to bring individual human rights cases alleging civil and political rights abuses before the United Nations Human Rights Committee. Your plan to ask the National Assembly today to withdraw this ratification highlights an apparent unwillingness to subject your government's human rights practices to international standards and scrutiny.
Guyana acceded to the First Optional Protocol on May 10, 1993, allowing the U.N. Human Rights Committee to monitor and investigate abuses alleged under the ICCPR. The First Optional Protocol allows human rights victims to present individual civil and political rights complaints before the United Nations Human Rights Committee. It is considered a critically important provision of the ICCPR because it gives victims an avenue for redress. Without it, victims cannot file cases before the internationally-respected Human Rights Committee.
Guyana's motion to withdraw represents the latest in a string of similar government decisions in the Caribbean region. As in other English-speaking Caribbean region countries, your government's plan is propelled by an interest in eliminating opportunities for death row prisoners to appeal to international human rights bodies. In October 1997, Jamaica also withdrew from the First Optional Protocol. Trinidad and Tobago decided to opt out of the American Convention on Human Rights in May 1998. We are concerned that these withdrawals from international treaties jeopardize citizens' rights.
Human Rights Watch, an independent, nongovernmental human rights organization, opposes all executions under law, irrespective of the crime and the legal process leading to its implementation. We believe capital punishment to be an inherently cruel practice, and one that it is often carried out in a discriminatory manner. Furthermore, the inherent fallibility of all criminal justice systems assures that even when full due process of law is respected, innocent persons are sometimes executed, representing a miscarriage of justice that can never be corrected.
Guyana's withdrawal from the First Optional Protocol would eliminate all Guyanese citizens' access to an international mechanism for the protection of their fundamental rights, lending support to the current trend in the Caribbean region. We urge you to do all in your power to curtail this regional movement to undermine support for international human rights standards.
Respectfully yours,
/s/
Sarah DeCosse
Caribbean Researcher for Human Rights Watch
Viviana Krsticevic
Executive Director
Center for Justice and International Law
cc: Derrick Jagan
Speaker of the House
National Assembly
Georgetown, Guyana
Mary Robinson
High Commissioner for Human Rights
United Nations
César Gaviria Trujillo
Secretary General
Organization American States
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