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Lawyer makes suggestions for improving human rights in the Caribbean
12/6/2009
By Erica Lazare
A Caribbean Community (CARICOM) administrative tribunal, human rights commission and Ombudsman are needed for the region.
This is the contention of University of the West Indies Cave Hill law lecturer, Dr. Caleb Pilgrim, who delivered the recent Democratic Labour Party lunchtime lecture at the party’s headquarters in Belleville.
Dr. Pilgrim emphasised that an administrative tribunal would be an important facility to settle disputes between employers and employees.
He referred to a court case of Johnson versus The Caribbean Centre for Development Administration (CARICAD) where the plaintiff was citing discrimination based on his or her Barbadian nationality. According to Dr. Pilgrim, the incident was a violation of Article 7 of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, which “offended principles of national justice” and was subsequently squashed by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) because it felt that it did not have jurisdiction to the claims of Johnson.
Of this incident he said: “This has serious implications as we have a number of regional companies operating within Barbados such as the Caribbean Development Bank, Caribbean Examinations Council and countless others who employ Barbadian workers that could have no recourse for employment injustices. Based on the decision by the CCJ, there is no legal remedy.
“Persons should be protected under the employment rights bill as the 41.1 article of the Geneva Conventions of Diplomatic Relations states that all of these International organisations have a duty to conform to the behaviour of the local laws and regulations enforced by the Government of Barbados,” added Pilgrim.
He was also of the opinion that his proposed administrative tribunal could “plug the serious hole” of discrimination of any sort, much like what takes place within the United Nations and Work Bank.
On the topic of introducing the region’s own CARICOM human rights commission, the lecturer insisted that aspects of human rights such as the right to be free from torture, right to life, access to fair trial and others should have no derogation and its standards should transcend all laws. However, he revealed that the average Barbadian is not aware of or prefers not to use the recourse afforded to them at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington DC due to cost, language and culture restraints and cited this as his premier reason for our own facilitation.
“My argument is that we would be constant with our human rights obligations overseas; it would provide us with relatively easy access to its services, be cheaper and would get rid of the cultural obstacles,” said a fervent Pilgrim, putting his case to the appreciative audience.
Dr. Pilgrim’s final proposal of an Ombudsman came from his belief that there “are a number of allegations across the Caribbean which merit investigation”, such as complaints of migrant workers.
He warned that in his or her capacity, whoever held the position should be given the authority to exercise jurisdiction of complaints so that recommendations can be sure to be acted upon.
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