Global human rights organisation Amnesty International has cited unlawful killings, torture and other forms of ill-treatment in Guyana in its recently released 2010 report.
Addressing the issues of torture and ill-treatment of Guyanese, the report identified three persons who were victims at the Leonora police station last October. “On 27 October, a 15-year-old boy was badly beaten and his genital area set alight when he refused to sign a confession. He was released without charge four days and admitted to hospital.” It noted too just the day before, October 26, “Deonarine Rafik had also been badly beaten and forced to sign a confession.
He was charged with murder on 30th October and held in pretrial detention until charges were withdrawn and he was released on 3 December.” Additionally the report identified Nouravie Wilfred, who “was held incommunicado for seven days and ill-treated before being released without charge on 3 December.” The report noted that three police officers were awaiting trial on charges of “unlawful wounding” at the end of 2009.
The report mentioned drug trafficker Roger Khan, currently serving a sentence in a US prison on charges including drug smuggling. “Following his conviction, the Guyanese government announced a police investigation into Roger Khan’s involvement in a ‘death squad’, whose members included serving and former police officers and which was reportedly responsible for the torture, enforced disappearance or killing of more than 200 people between 2002 and 2006,”the report said. “In November, a coalition of opposition parties published a dossier of unsolved killings committed since 1993, including cases of unlawful killings by the security forces and former death squads, and called for an international inquiry.”
In relation to violence against women and girls, the report noted that a Sexual Offences Bill, “which proposed amending existing gender-discriminatory legislation, was tabled in July and remained before the National Assembly at the end of the year.” The bill in question has since been passed and was last week assented to by President Bharrat Jagdeo.
The country’s “archaic colonial laws continued to be used to discriminate against people on grounds of their sexuality,” the report said in connection with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights.
A court case in February, where seven persons were convicted and fined under an article of the Summary Jurisdiction (Offences) Act, which criminalizes cross-dressing for both men and women was referred to.
Concerning citizens’ right to health, the report, while noting that a National HIV/AIDS Workplace Policy was introduced in April stated that “stigma and discrimination towards people living with HIV/AIDS… remained a barrier to the successful implementation of treatment, particularly for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.”
Further it said that “violations of the rights to privacy and confidentiality also continued to discourage people from seeking an HIV test or treatment.”
The report said that Guyana had a 66 per 1,000 mortality rate for boys under 5 and 47 per 1,000 for girls in the same age range.
Regarding the death penalty, it stated that “three people were sentenced to death” during the year, resulting in 41people being on death row at the end of the year. No executions were conducted during the year, the report said.
The report gave the country’s population as 0.8 million and placed the life expectancy at 66.5 years. The country’s adult literacy rate was tagged at 99 percent.
Amnesty International is a group which began in 1961, trying to work worldwide to stop the abuse of human rights. The group currently has more than 2.2 million members, supporters and subscribers in over 150 countries.