By Dr. Bertrand Ramcharan
National human rights protection systems (NHRPS) can play a strategic role in the transformation of countries, including in the Americas and the Caribbean. Transformation is the key perspective, as suggested by Sonia Cardenas and Rebecca Root in their 2022 book. Human Rights in Latin America: A Politics of Transformation.
The future of human rights in Latin America is uncertain, according to Cardenas and Root. They think that three elements constrain the possibilities for deeper change: poverty and inequality; a climate of impunity; and entrenched exclusionary ideologies. These are also sources of human rights abuses in Latin America. Indeed, they are also sources of human rights abuses in the Caribbean.
The thirty-five UN Member States of the Americas and Caribbean region include: established democracies, e.g., Canada, USA, Costa Rica, and Commonwealth Caribbean countries; re-established democracies such as Argentina, Chile, Uruguay; countries that have recently experienced conflict, e.g. Central American states; countries with serious governance problems, e.g., Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras; countries with severe economic and social problems, of which there are many; countries seriously affected by drug trafficking and organized crime; countries affected by cyclones and hurricanes, notably in the Caribbean; and countries facing existential crises due to the rising oceans, again notably the Caribbean.
The Universal Periodic Review process operated by the UN Human Rights Council reveals that there is room for improvement in the NHRPS of every country of the world, as indeed of the Americas and the Caribbean. A few countries of the region, e.g., Argentina, Canada, Uruguay, are making genuine efforts to benefit from the UN peer review process. Several countries are ‘managing’ the process internationally, but doing little to internalise the process nationally. There is little evidence of activity in the Dear Land.
It is important that each country undertake a systematic assessment of its NHRPS with a view to enhancing it and transforming the lives of its people. In this essay we look at national samples of UN recommendations to countries of the region to improve their NHRPS. We base these on letters sent by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to each country following their passage through the Universal Periodic Review process.
United States of America
The UN High Commissioner has encouraged the United States of America to establish a national human rights institution for the promotion and protection of human rights; to strengthen protection, in law and in practice, against all forms of discrimination; to implement effective measures to curb gun violence and to strengthen firearm control measures; to ensure systematic accountability in cases of excessive use of force and extrajudicial killings by police; to combat all forms of trafficking in persons; and to ensure that indigenous peoples have full access to redress for violations perpetrated on and against their lands and territories.
Cuba
The High Commissioner has encouraged Cuba to ratify the International Covenants on human rights; to guarantee the full enjoyment of the rights to freedom of expression and to peaceful assembly and association; to adopt measures to end arbitrary detentions of people before, during and after peaceful demonstrations and release of all those arbitrarily arrested; and to further strengthen the legal framework governing labour rights.
El Salvador
The High Commissioner has called on El Salvador to guarantee the implementation of the resolutions of the Office of Human Rights Advocate; to intensify efforts to combat high rates of violence; continue to promote changes in the institutions of justice and public security; prevent human rights violations committed by the security forces; ensure that the process of selection and appointment of judges and magistrates is established by law; and to develop, in consultation with indigenous peoples, a legal framework for the recognition and protection of their rights.
Guyana
The High Commissioner has encouraged Guyana to strengthen the institutional framework for the protection of human rights by establishing an independent national human rights institution in line with international standards; to combat all forms of discrimination; to address prison overcrowding and to ensure that conditions of detention are in line with international standards; to continue efforts to strengthen the justice system by enhancing its efficiency and increasing access to justice for vulnerable groups, including through the establishment of legal aid clinics in all regions; and to revise the Amerindian Act and other relevant legislation with a view to aligning them with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Jamaica
The High Commissioner has encouraged Jamaica to establish a national human rights institution in accordance with international standards; to adopt legal frameworks to protect all citizens from violence and discrimination; to improve the conditions of detention, including by reducing the overcrowding of prisons by resorting to alternatives to imprisonment, in particular for children and migrants; and to reform the judicial system to strengthen procedural guarantees.
Mexico
The High Commissioner for Human Rights has highlighted the need for Mexico to strengthen the rule of law and ensure the effective investigation of human rights violations, thus reducing the existing high levels of impunity; to enhance the capacities and independence of the National Human Rights Commission and of the 32 state human rights commissions; to adopt additional measures to address any form of discrimination and violence; to protect the rights of human rights defenders, journalists, activists and civilians from violence, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and organized crime and to adopt additional normative and institutional measures to effectively combat all forms of discrimination against indigenous peoples and communities and persons of African descent.
Nicaragua
The High Commissioner has called on Nicaragua to enhance the independence and capacities of the Office of the Human Rights Advocate; to enhance measures to prevent excessive use of force and all forms of violence by police and armed elements, and investigate and prosecute all cases of violence and abuse; take all necessary measures to disarm and dismantle armed groups; to improve conditions of detention and effectively prevent, investigate and prosecute acts of torture and ill-treatment in custody; to release all people arbitrarily detained in relation to protests and for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly; to enhance the independence and impartiality of the judicial system; and to enhance effective consultation processes with indigenous peoples and people of African descent, including by adopting additional measures for the demarcation of their ancestral lands.
Suriname
The High Commissioner noted the persisting problem of overcrowding in prison and detention facilities and encouraged Suriname to improve conditions of detention. The High Commissioner also called on Suriname to establish and operationalize a national human rights institution in accordance with international standards; to mitigate the negative impact of mining on indigenous populations; to investigate reports of excessive use of force by police and to hold those responsible accountable; to take steps to modernize Suriname’s prisons to an acceptable standard of safety, capacity and sanitation; to ensure full and swift implementation of the various judgments made by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights regarding the land rights of indigenous peoples in Suriname; and to ensure that all children born in Suriname are registered and provided with official birth certificates.
Trinidad and Tobago
The High Commissioner called on the Government to continue strengthening the health care system to ensure effective access to basic health services for the most vulnerable; to establish a national human rights institution in accordance with international standards; to combat violent crimes to ensure the safety of the people; to investigate reports of arbitrary or unlawful killings and human trafficking by the police and of excessive use of force by prison guards, and hold accountable any officers found to be responsible.
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It would be important for the enhancement of the national human rights protection system of every country to conduct a historical diagnosis of the human rights journey of the country, to identify the needs of the victims of historical injustices, to highlight the plight of the neediest parts of the population, to place the spotlight on victims of gross violations, and to generate urgent action to correct injustices.
