National human rights commissions hold the state accountable and should be robust, independent and autonomous, says Roberta Clarke, President of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
She noted that they are established to receive information from people who perceive that their rights are threatened or violated and to monitor and advise the state so the state meets its human rights obligations.
Asked if the absence of an overarching national human rights commission in Guyana is impeding the work of human rights and other civil society organisations locally, Clarke, a Barbadian, said, “I cannot say if it is impeding or not. In the IACHR we work with several national institutions on human rights, prioritising dialogue so there can be a pathway to the authorities where people may go when they feel their rights have been violated and to seek a remedy, a guarantee of non-repetition or redress. It can also be an alternative to going to court to seek redress, which could be expensive and time-consuming.
“That is the importance of national human rights institutions. That is why the IACHR is very clear about the necessity of independent national human rights institutions. If the laws say they should exist, they should exist and be functioning,” she told the Sunday Stabroek in an interview in observance of International Women’s Day.
Guyana has several human rights commissions but an overarching body catered for by the constitution has never been established.
The IACHR’s mandate is to protect and promote human rights. It also facilitates dialogue between member states and civil society organisations.
Touching on the topic of women human rights defenders in the context of organised crimes in the Caribbean and the Americas among other issues, Clarke said, there is need for space for women’s human rights defenders to do their work in order to hold states accountable and to have their voices heard in an environment where they can act without intimidation, persecution or reprisal.
Women’s rights defenders are those who, regardless of sex or gender, defend women’s rights across a wide range, be they civil, political, economic, social, cultural or environmental.
This category includes women who defend human rights across the board.
“It could be Indigenous People’s rights, land rights, LGBTIQA+ rights, the rights of people living with disabilities or economic rights. They seek to hold states to account for fulfilling those rights whether found in national constitutions or in regional and international human rights conventions,” she noted.
In Guyana and the Caribbean, some of those obligations are under the Inter-American Convention for Human Rights and the American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man.
She said, in the context of International Women’s Day, state obligations to end discrimination are found in the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Inter American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women also known as the Belem do Para Convention. Guyana has also signed and ratified other conventions.
“Civil society organisations are working to ensure that these obligations are translated into domestic laws, domestic policies, domestic practices.
“We speak of women rights defenders but not all individuals and organisations working on human rights refer to themselves that way,” she said. They may refer to themselves as civil society or non-governmental organisations. What matters is whether they are actively engaged in promoting rights-based democracy, rights-based development and security.
They ask hard questions, concerned about how the states collect revenue, how they use that revenue to address inequalities and discrimination and how they use revenue to advance social justice.
Truth to power
Women rights defenders, she said, seek to speak truth to power (the power of the state) and institutions of the state as they try to represent the voiceless, those with less voice, the marginalized and the discriminated.
“They often do so as volunteers, using their own resources with no interest in material reward. They want to see improvement in the lives of especially those who are experiencing hardships or a poor quality of life.”
Because human rights defenders often question policies and practices of the state and non-state actors like big businesses and people with powerful interests, she said, they may cause discomfort.
Noting that defending human rights in the context of organised crime in the Caribbean and the Americas can be very dangerous and conflictual, she said, “Women stand up to organised crime at great peril to themselves because organised criminals are not reluctant to use violence to silence the voices challenging what they do.”
Noting also cases in which women rights defenders, such as Honduran Bertha Caceres and Marielle Franco in Brazil, lost their lives or were harmed for what they were doing, she said, “Unfortunately, in this region we have many human rights defenders who face a lot of harm and violence perpetrated against them for standing up to state power or non-state power for themselves and others.”
Apart from defending the rights of others, she said, defenders are often subjected to criminalisation, such as facing charges for taking part in social protests and being subjected to arbitrary detention, attacks, threats, disappearances and other acts of violence.
“Women human rights defenders, particularly, also face stigmatization through public statements intended to make their work seem illegitimate, and to foster a climate of hostility and intolerance among various sectors of society.”
The IACHR has not done specific research into organised crime in the Caribbean but has produced a report on the Impact of Organised Crime on Women and Girls in the Northern and Central America, Clarke, a lawyer with decades of human rights experience, said.
Organized crime in the region can be connected to the movement of weapons and narcotics, trafficking in persons, exploitation of labour and gender-based violence, she said.
In relation to the Caribbean, some countries, she said, have high levels of crime (not necessarily organised). This includes homicides and sexual violence with relatively low levels of detection and low levels of prosecution. Because of this there is a degree of impunity around violence against women in the region.
“The question we have to ask is to what extent is this increase in crime, criminality and insecurity connected to the historic inequalities and the need to strengthen approaches to promote social justice and social development. They may be connected, and we should continue to think about the root causes of crime including the gender differentials of crime and violence to address it effectively.”
While the progress women have made is celebrated, she said, gender inequality continues.
In the last 30 to 50 years since the conventions were signed, women’s access to education advanced significantly, all the way up to tertiary levels. There have been significant decreases in maternal and infant mortality, a number of discriminatory laws were removed from statute books and positive actions taken including access to maternity leave and laws that address domestic violence and sexual offences. And in most Caribbean countries there are constitutional provisions on the prohibition of discrimination on grounds of sex and gender.
Implementation
“These are clear signs of progress in the formal legal space, but it is in the implementation we have the problem. Implementation requires targeted goals, well-resourced institutions, and institutions of accountability, she said, noting “To the extent we have not achieved this equality that we are working towards, we must address cultural change as well. One of the main indicators of persistent inequality is the level of violence against women and girls.”
Quoting from the UN Women survey, Caribbean Women Count: Ending Violence Against Women and Girls Data Hub conducted between 2016 and 2019, she noted that a significant percentage of women had experienced violence perpetrated by an intimate partner across their life.
In Guyana the percentage was the highest with 55% experiencing violence by an intimate partner, Grenada 39%, Jamaica, 39% and Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago each 44%.
The levels of non-partner sexual violence are also high in the Caribbean, she said with 16% in Guyana.
Thirty-eight percent of Guyanese women who experienced violence by an intimate partner said the violence was physical and/or sexual, 16% of them said they had experienced some forms of sexual violence and 17% had experienced non-partner sexual harassment.
“We know that violence and sexual violence continue to be a problem. All Caribbean countries involved in the survey have been trying to improve their responses, services and access to justice. We know we are not there yet. A lot of that violence is underreported.”
Political participation, a right that also speaks to equality, she said, is critical to make sure that policies are responsive to the needs of diverse populations.
Guyana has the highest number of women in the parliament in the Caribbean with 35%. (Guyana has quota laws).
According to statistics from the World Bank database, she said, “Many Caribbean countries are under 30%. St Lucia has 11% women in its parliament, St Vincent and the Grenadines, 18%, Antigua and Barbuda, 11% and Trinidad and Tobago, 26%.”
While women and girls are excelling in school and over 50% are in universities since the 1990s, she rhetorically questioned, “Why is it our leadership still male-dominated?”
Apart from the parliament, she noted that the male-dominated type of leadership is reflective in the private sector and across public and private sector boards.
A study done in Jamaica in the early 2000s found that women are appointed to boards when they are much older with experience and certification while men are appointed when they are younger with less experience and less certification.
In terms of reproductive rights in the Caribbean, she said, it is not clear in all states if women and girls can access termination of pregnancy services, including when they were raped or if their life or health is endangered. Until recently, she said, it was the practice of doctors not to perform tubal ligation on the requests of women until the partner agreed even though this it was not the law.
On the issue of labour force participation, she said, “We do not have up-to-date information on that but generally speaking women still receive less pay than men especially in the private sector, are less represented in leadership positions, and many are not covered by social security.
Women also still carry the burden of care for children, the sick and the elderly.
“The call is there globally for that burden to be shared, redistributed, to be recognised and recompensed. We take women’s care responsibilities for granted. Who cares for the woman? Should we not make sure that women caregivers have access to social security so the work they do is recognised actively in the social policy of the state. In the Caribbean we have not seen the recognition of women’s care and unpaid labour incorporated in social security systems. Unpaid labour is something we have to think about.”
This week, the Inter American Court of Human Rights is expected to respond to Argentina’s request for an advisory opinion on if there is a duty of care under the Inter- American human rights instruments and how does the state recognise that right to care. This will be a major step
for countries to develop care policies with a gender focus throughout the region.
