The Guyana Defence Force (GDF) yesterday signed on to the United States Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) Human Rights Framework that supports development of human rights programmes in the Caribbean and Latin America region.
“We have had a human rights initiative for 25 years at SOUTHCOM. We celebrated the 25th anniversary in December… if you think about it, it is just a commitment. It is non-binding. It means ‘We are going to double down and we are going to make sure that human rights is training; is understanding; it is going to be part of our curriculum with our military and security forces’. That is all it is. It just means we are going to double down and going to make sure we train our folks to understand human rights,” SOUTHCOM’s Commander, General Laura J. Richardson told Stabroek News yesterday during an exclusive interview.
Against the background that the SOUTHCOM and GDF relationship is focussed on many areas, including human rights, Richardson was asked about the types of human rights issues that were discussed here.