A lack of statistics on poverty here is a fundamental problem in addressing the country’s human rights situation and its challenges.
This was stated by United Nations Resident Coordinator here, Mikiko Tanaka to a visiting mission from the Washington DC, US-headquartered Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
In a statement on October 13 on its September 21 – 23 visit here, the IACHR said that at its meeting with the United Nations Resident Coordinator, she cited the “dearth of statistics concerning the issue of poverty as a fundamental problem to address the current human rights situation and challenges. It also represents an important obstacle to the adoption of legislation and public policies which respond adequately to the needs of different groups, persons, and collectivities.” The IACHR added that the Resident Coordinator also alluded to the problems of “ethnic polarization, structural discrimination, violence, and suicide as factors that seriously affect a diversity of persons, groups, and (collectives) in Guyana, including women, young persons, and indigenous peoples.”
The IACHR said that its first visit here was to examine issues relating to poverty as well as the respect and guaranteeing of the economic, social, and cultural rights in the country.
The delegation which was led by Commissioner Paulo Vannuchi, who heads the IACHR Unit on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, met a range of government officials and civil society groups.
It said that at the meeting with civil society groups, attention was drawn by them to the “high level of poverty” which the Guyanese population continues to face, persistent ethnic polarization, and human rights issues that impact a range of persons, groups, and collectives, including Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) persons, persons with disabilities, and those with HIV/AIDS along with specific violations of the rights of children and adolescents, women, and indigenous peoples.
The IACHR said that persons at the meeting adverted to the “high levels of violence suffered by women and LGBT persons, along with the need to reform the country’s laws in order to harmonize them with international standards on the rights to equality and nondiscrimination”.
Particular note was made of the structural nature of the poverty, discrimination, and exclusion suffered by the LGBT population, the lack of opportunities for a quality education and decent work, as well as barriers to required health care services. Faced with a lack of opportunities, the IACHR was told that LGBT youth frequently drop out of school, resort to sex work, and live on the streets. The organizations also provided the IACHR with information on domestic violence against women across different social classes, as well as the lack of services and options for victims in such situations and that many cases reported to the authorities go unpunished.
Civil society organisations also provided the IACHR with information regarding the “alarming situation of persons living with different types of disabilities, such as deafness, many of whom are rejected by society and encounter structural obstacles to finding decent, quality jobs in which they can work with dignity.” The IACHR statement said that the organisations stressed the urgent need for better education and job creation programmes to enable persons with disabilities to lead productive lives and boost their participation in public life.
The IACHR said that several organizations also provided information on the serious structural challenges with which indigenous peoples still contend in Guyana. These include failure to respect their land rights, the acute poverty that affects people living in rural and hinterland areas, violence and people trafficking that affect indigenous women.
The IACHR said that the organizations underlined the lack of educational and career opportunities for young people in Guyana, which prompts them to migrate to other countries.
In its meeting with Minister of Education Dr Rupert Roopnaraine, the IACHR said that he mentioned that there are “barriers in the education system that affect in a particular way those persons who are affected by poverty, and those living in rural and hinterland areas.” The IACHR said he stressed the need for an increase in teachers’ pay and the retirement age. He also acknowledged the serious problem of suicide and that many young people are leaving Guyana in search of better educational and career opportunities owing to the lack of incentives to stay here.
As reported earlier in Stabroek News, during its visit to Lombard Street, the IACHR delegation was shocked by the extreme poverty and precarious living conditions of its inhabitants and called in the statement for the State to “adopt urgent steps to improve the socioeconomic (situation) of the Lombard Street residents and to create, immediately and without delay, conditions that allow them to exercise all their human rights.”
Among the groups the IACHR met were the Society against Sexual Orientation and Discrimination, Artistes in Direct Support, Monique’s Caring Hands, Deaf Association of Guyana, Global Shapers Community, Guyana National Youth Council, Guyana Organisation of Indigenous Peoples, Guyana Responsible Parents Association, Guyana Trans United, Human Rights Association of Guyana, and Volunteer Youth Corps.
