Guyana yesterday declared its support for the launch of an initiative by Canada which is aimed at stopping countries from detaining foreign citizens for use as diplomatic leverage.
Ottawa and Washington have accused China, Russia and North Korea among others of engaging in arbitrary detention of foreign citizens.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Hugh Todd issued a statement in support of Canada’s initiative.
He noted that small states like Guyana remain most vulnerable if the practice of arbitrary arrest, detention and sentencing prevails.
Observers note that this issue has resonance with the detention recently by Venezuela of two Guyanese fishing boats and their crews. The boats and crew were subsequently released.
Todd said: “The Government of Guyana strongly condemns politically motivated arbitrary arrest, detention and sentencing of foreign nationals and embraces the position that every person, regardless of who they are and where they are, is entitled to the protection of their basic human rights and fundamental freedoms as established in international law. Every State has the responsibility to safeguard these rights, not just for their citizens but for foreign nationals within their jurisdiction”.
He added that the detention of foreign nationals as a political tool is troubling and contravenes customary international law, due process and many provisions of international treaties.
“Foreign citizens should never be used as political pawns; therefore, the Government of Guyana stands resolutely for human, civil and political rights and encourages all States to end the practice of arbitrary arrest, detention or sentencing to exercise leverage or blackmail over foreign governments and further encourages the United Nations to promote and pursue the Declaration against Arbitrary Detention in State-To-State Relations within the United Nations Framework” Todd declared.
He said that Guyana is continuously increasing efforts to improve the treatment of persons detained within the confines of our municipal laws in a humane manner.
Reuters yesterday said that Canada had launched a 58-nation initiative to stop countries from detaining foreign citizens for diplomatic leverage.
Foreign ministers signed a non-binding declaration to denounce what Canadian Foreign Minister Marc Garneau called unacceptable behaviour.
“Taking people from their families and using them as bargaining chips is both illegal and immoral,” he said by phone, calling the effort the first of its kind.
Other signatories include Japan, Britain, Australia and virtually all members of the 27-nation European Union.
The declaration does not target any nation, Reuters said. Gar-neau stated that it was designed to increase diplomatic pressure on countries that detain foreigners as well as others who might want to do so.
But, according to Reu-ters, a Canadian official said the initiative had been sparked by concern over arrests of foreigners by China, Iran, Russia and North Korea.
Even before the declaration was formally released, the Global Times, a Chinese state-backed newspaper, cited unnamed experts as saying the initiative was “an aggressive and ill-considered attack designed to provoke China”.
Reuters noted that Ottawa is locked in a dispute with Beijing, which detained two Canadians in 2018 after Vancouver police picked up a senior Huawei Technologies Co Ltd executive on a U.S. warrant. Canada denounces what it calls “hostage diplomacy” while China insists the two cases are not linked.
Among the signatories is the United States. Last week the State Department called for the release of the two Canadians and rejected China’s “use of coercion as a political tool”.
The Canadian official said the declaration could help put pressure on Beijing.
“We want to make them feel a little uncomfortable. We want them to know that a lot of countries think this practice is unacceptable and hopefully over time it does contribute to a change in behavior,” said the official, who requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation.
Last December the British parliament’s foreign affairs committee called on the government to declare Iran’s “arbitrary detention of foreign nationals” as hostage-taking, Reuters said.
