The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) has called for the Mayor and City Council to end its “discriminatory and ill-judged” ‘name and shame’ anti-littering campaign, and for media houses to cease reporting same.
According to a press release from the GRHA, the campaign which allows City Constabulary officers to arrest persons found littering and subject them to a lecture from the council’s public relation officer prior to charging them is the “latest example of high-handedness” at City Hall.
GHRA noted that part of the campaign’s modus operandi is to circulate names and photographs of offenders to the media and one such example was published in the October 17 edition of Stabroek News.
Besides that, the Human Rights body has expressed concerns about the campaign’s “target of inhabitants of Bourda and Lacytown.”
The sequence of the three-phase campaign, GHRA said, “speaks volumes about the incompetence we have come to expect from City Hall over the years.” M&CC has been reported as saying that the two remaining phases will be to place more bins around the city, and organise community talks to raise awareness about littering.
However it said it hoped the first phase (name and shame) would have brought enough attention to the issue so that the education campaign would not be needed.
The GHRA has also issued a call to the relevant political authority, magistrates and media to discourage the campaign. More so, the Human Rights body said in addition to the media desisting from “supporting this type of campaign, it should “apologise for having already published lists of names provided by the council.”
