On December 31st last year, Guyana had mistakenly voted no on a resolution at the United Nations for the elimination of racism and racial discrimination and this error was later corrected to reflect a vote of yes.
Guyana’s vote recently became an issue when APNU+AFC and others accused the Government of having voted no on the resolution entitled `A global call for concrete action for the elimination of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance and the comprehensive implementation of and follow-up to the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action’. They cited the record of the vote which was taken and which initially showed that Guyana had voted no. Based on the record seen by Stabroek News this record was later adjusted by the UN Secretariat to show that Guyana had voted yes.
The note to the record said that subsequent to the vote, the delegations of Guyana and Madagascar advised the Secretariat that they had intended to vote in favour.
On April 10, Guyana’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett issued a statement in which she insisted that the country had voted yes. She did not refer to the initial vote in error.
“As Guyana’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, I wish to confirm that Guyana voted in support of the resolution when it was adopted in the General Assembly on December 31st, 2020.
“Indeed, as Chair of G77 and China, Guyana was the main sponsor of the resolution and, jointly with South Africa, facilitated the negotiations for this Resolution in the Third Committee. The Resolution was introduced by the representative from Guyana in the Third Committee on November 19th, 2020, who reminded the Committee that 2021 would mark the 20th Anniversary of the adoption of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action and, as such, the G77 and China had presented substantive changes to the Resolution aimed at commemorating this important milestone”, Rodrigues-Birkett had said.
She added: “It has been brought to my attention that circulating on social media is the assertion that Guyana voted against the United Nations resolution … This is completely false and cannot be further from the truth. As Guyana’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, I wish to confirm that Guyana voted in support of the resolution when it was adopted in the General Assembly on December 31st, 2020”.
