International human-rights organisation, Amnesty International has noted that levels of violence against women and girls in Guyana remained high while Indigenous Peoples continued to face obstacles to realizing their land rights and at least one person was shot by police last year in circumstances suggesting it may have been an unlawful killing.
In its 2011 Annual Report on the state of the world’s human rights, the NGO noted that Guyana’s human rights record was assessed under the United Nations Universal Periodic Review last September. The authorities supported a number of recommendations, but rejected a wide range of others. For example, they did not commit to set up an independent inquiry into the deaths of more than 200 people allegedly killed by “death squads” between 2002 and 2006, the report pointed out.
On violence against women and girls, the report said that levels of violence against women and girls remained high. According to UNIFEM, one in four women in Guyana has been physically abused in a relationship, it said. It noted that in April 2010, the Sexual Offences Act was passed by the National Assembly. The Act, which includes provisions widening the definition of rape and criminalizing rape within marriage, was welcomed as an important step in the eradication of sexual violence. A Task Force, set up to develop and co-ordinate implementation of the National Plan for the Prevention of Sexual Offences, met for the first time in October.
On Indigenous People’s rights, the report says that last September, members were appointed to the newly created Indigenous Peoples’ Commission. The Commis-sion’s primary functions include promoting and protecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples and making recommendations on economic and education policies to advance their interests. Indigenous land claims continued to be addressed under the 2006 Amerindian Act. “However, Indigenous Peoples alleged that poor demarcation processes were allowing the government to take over traditional lands and that in some areas demarcation had taken place without the free, prior and informed consent of the communities affected,” the NGO noted.
On unlawful killings, it pointed to the case in June 2010 when 16-year-old Kelvin Fraser was fatally wounded by police at Patentia, West Bank Demerara. According to reports, Kelvin Fraser and three youths fled from police investigating complaints that the boys were harassing female students from the Patentia Secondary School. An officer caught Kelvin Fraser and shot him in the chest while attempting to arrest him, the report says. An investigation into the shooting was continuing at the end of the year. On torture and other ill-treatment, the NGO highlighted that judicial proceedings against three police officers charged in connection with the torture and ill-treatment in October 2009 of three people, including a 15-year-old boy, in Leonora police station stalled in the courts last year. One of the victims was reported to have accepted a compensation payment and the relative of another victim stated that the case had been “settled”, it noted. Since then the charges against the policemen were dismissed because the complainants did not show up in court to give evidence. The three officers accused in the case remained on active duty at the end of the year, the report said.
On the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, the report said that sex between men remained a criminal offence punishable by lengthy prison terms. Laws dating from the former colonial administration continued to be used to discriminate against transgender people, the NGO said.
Further, the report said stigma and discrimination towards people living with HIV/AIDS remained a barrier to the successful implementation of treatment.
In addition, it noted that at least one person was sentenced to death in 2010. More than 30 people remained on death row at the end of the year. There were no executions during 2010; the last execution took place in 1997. An amendment to the Criminal Law (Offences) Act, which abolishes mandatory death sentences for murder, passed into law in October. However, the government rejected calls for a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty, the report notes.
