During the United Nations Human Rights Committee’s focus on Guyana, Costa Rica’s representative Rodrigo Carazo upbraided Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance Gail Teixeira for her “confrontational” responses to questions posed.
Carazo raised concerns about the credibility of reports and information provided to the committee, which did not allow for positive dialogue on the issue. He specifically mentioned two prisons in Guyana that have not been renovated for many decades and are in a dilapidated state. He did not identify these.
“With reference to the credibility of our sources who provided us with reports and information, that doesn’t allow for very … positive dialogue. When there is such a confrontational response I fear the head of delegation referred to several improvements made in one prison without naming said prison. According to the information we have received, there are two prisons in Guyana that have been in place for many decades now… not being renovated for many decades. They’re in a dilapidated state…,” he stated.
Carazo then asked Teixeira to clarify which specific prison she was referring to when mentioning improvements in infrastructure and service delivery to detainees.
“And so I’d like to know which of those two prisons that have been renovated and improved the minister was referring to. I think reference was made to improvements in terms of infrastructure and service delivery to detainees, but again, which specific prison was referenced being made to the countries with regards to Guyana in its wider role in the region?” he pressed.
In response, Teixeira acknowledged the overcrowding in detention facilities and mentioned efforts to address the issue. She stated that the UN Committee on Persons of African descent had condemned the Lusignan prison in 2017 and 2018, prompting action to improve conditions for inmates. The minister also highlighted the construction of new facilities and improvements in healthcare, food and education for the prison population.
“I’m waiting for some information on the issue of addressing overcrowding in the places with detention. We have, as we said, taken seriously the statement by the UN Committee on persons of African descent who went to the… Lusignan prison and basically condemned it in 2017, 2018. We have completed and [are] accommodating now 1500 inmates into its six structures. We’ve already completed housing and we have been able to construct new facilities… and so I’m sure there’s improvement in the conditions of this… There are five new main prisons in Guyana and not two as a committee member referred to and they are across all the regions in the various regions in the country. And there’s also… a female prison, which has approximately 50 to 60 people at any one time,” she explained.
Further, Teixeira mentioned ongoing construction at the New Amsterdam prison and a new female prison at Lusignan. She stressed the government’s commitment to providing training programmes and educational opportunities for prisoners to improve their skills and literacy levels.
“We’ve started construction at the New Amsterdam prison which has been there from probably the 1800s and that is also being done… We can go through and provide you with the interventions we made to improve the health care, the food the training programmes, etc. of the prison population data including training programmes providing them with school education so they can graduate from high school with literacy and numeracy as well as skills,” she said.
During the three days of questioning, a somewhat tense exchange ensued between the Human Rights Committee members and Guyana’s state representative. Many times, Teixeira either refrained from answering questions or attempted to question the credibility of the sources from which the committee members’ questions came.
At other times, the minister alluded to the time constraint for answering all the questions as preventing her from doing so. As was promised to the committee, the government has uploaded further information to support its responses to the questions.
