The Rights of the Child Commission (RCC) is one of the suite of human rights bodies agreed under the last round of constitutional reforms 25 years ago and for which the overarching Commission is still to be appointed.
Under the Constitution, the RCC has vast responsibilities and powers. Its general responsibilities include to:
-investigate complaints of, or initiate investigations into, violations of the rights under its purview;
-to resolve disputes or rectify acts or omissions by mediation, conciliation or negotiation;
-to take appropriate action on behalf of persons whose rights have been, are being, or are likely to be violated;
-to enlist the aid of such persons as may be necessary to give expert advice in order to facilitate its functions.
In addition to these, under Article 212V of the Constitution, the RCC is specifically entrusted with the responsibility to:
-promote the rights and interests of, and respect for the views of, children;
-ensure that the rights and interests of children are taken into account at all levels of the Government, other public bodies, and private organisations, when decisions and policies affecting children are taken;
-monitor compliance and make recommendations for the compliance with international instruments to which the Government accedes from time to time, including those already acceded to and which relate to the purpose of the Commission;
-ensure that children have effective means of redress if their rights are being violated;
-monitor, evaluate and make recommendations on policies, procedures and practices of organisations, bodies and institutions in order to promote the rights of the child.
It will be charitable to say that the RCC shows no evidence of performance. Even if it is operating behind the scenes it has no public profile. It must be a public and fearless defender of child rights. That, it is not. Considering the level of abuse of children here and the violations of their rights, the RCC just does not register on the radar. PPP/C governments have relished the opportunity of appointing persons they are comfortable with to commissions such as this one and it seems that that advantage has its rewards.
This newspaper’s last engagement with the RCC underlined the ineffectiveness of this constitutional body. In February this year, schoolgirl Ezeka Minty was disqualified from the children’s Mashramani calypso contest after singing about the government’s 6.5% salary increase. This disqualification was a violation of the UN’s Rights of the Child Convention where Article 13 says: “The child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child’s choice.”
Given our constitution’s recognition of these international human rights conventions, the violation trumped any guidelines that might have been generated within the Ministry of Education. Yet, there was no determined response by the RCC. When contacted by Stabroek News on February 20th, the Commission’s Chief Executive Officer, Andre Gonsalves said that it aimed to investigate and gather all of the facts. That has since petered out. Following a tiff with the Ministry of Education about whether it had requested information on the matter, the RCC on April 15 said that the parents of Ezeka did not want the matter pursued any further. Case closed.
Questioned about another child, Zoriah Martindale, whose parent Candace Martindale raised similar concerns about her child being disqualified from one of the Mashramani competitions, Gonsalves said the RCC had not received a formal complaint from Ms Martindale. Therefore, he said the commission had not made contact with her. This newspaper then asked Mr Gonsalves if the Mintys had made a formal complaint to prompt an investigation by the RCC, to which he responded in the negative.
What the RCC needed to have done was to fully investigate both cases where the children’s right to expression was violated, issue an edict to the Ministry of Education to repair its procedures and release a report to the public and Parliament on what it had done. Nothing of the sort occurred.
It would be of great interest to know whether the RCC had taken any active part in examining the possible violations of the rights of the child who had lodged an allegation of rape against former Minister Dharamlall last year. There were any number of inflections at which the RCC should have invoked interest to ensure the protection of the interests of this girl. The official investigation could not have precluded the Commission from showing an interest in this matter which had characteristics of grooming and the undermining of the child’s right to justice. It is not too late for the RCC to make a public statement on this matter.
The Mahdia fire that claimed the lives of 20 children a year ago was another area of great interest for the RCC if it was interested in upholding its constitutional obligations and making the government accountable for the series of failures that occurred. What about the survivors of this horrific fire and their rights to adequate care and trauma counselling? Isn’t that something that the RCC should be moved by? Did it visit Mahdia and the other villages affected by this tragedy?
The epidemic of school invasions, attacks on students, illegal corporal punishment and other abominations should also attract the attention of the RCC. Just recently, students of Queen’s College were allegedly whipped with their belts by a teacher. The matter is now with the Board of Governors of the school but again the RCC should be appalled by an incident which if confirmed would constitute a flagrant violation of the Convention of the Rights of the Child.
Writing about the murder of sixteen-year-old Sanesha Lall in November 2020, Bibi Ahamad said: “Of particular concern to us is the glaring lack of action on the part of the Rights of the Child Commission (RCC). Part of the task of this Constitutionally-mandated body is to monitor the activities of the governmental and non-governmental entities that are engaged in safeguarding children from all forms of abuse. This Commission has been operational and receiving funding from the National Budget from over a decade, but we are hard pressed to identify any significant achievement or initiative they have undertaken to improve child rights in Guyana. We believe that the Commissioners do indeed care about the plight of children in Guyana and we appreciate the letters and statements that they have shared with the Guyanese public over the years. However, public education and advocacy is simply not enough to safeguard child rights; much more is needed.
This Commission has a critical oversight role to play, as well as the power to influence the functioning of government agencies and the NGO sector. However, it does not appear as if the Commissioners are aware of this fact”. Nothing seems to have changed since this letter.
In March of this year, in an interview with the Sunday Stabroek, Roberta Clarke, President of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said that national human rights commissions hold the state accountable and should be robust, independent and autonomous. 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. The RCC – and all of the other bodies entrusted with such obligations – must begin to deliver.
