Guyana has received some 143 recommendations during its presentation to the Working Group at the recently concluded United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR), in Switzerland.
Foreign Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett on recently told local media operatives at a press conference that Guyana has accepted more than half of these recommendations which were made by other countries. “Guyana had the option of responding to the recommendations there or responded to some or all, or we had the option of not responding to any and provide a report at a later date,” she stated.
Minister Rodrigues-Birkett disclosed that Guyana has accepted 75 of the recommendations and committed to consider another 64 recommendations before the Human Rights Council meet in June. No recommendation was rejected by this country, while it accepted another four that were already being implemented. Those accepted were in the areas of women strengthening, the Sexual Offences Act, discrimination against LGBT (lesbians, guys, bi-sexual and transgender) persons, Child Protection, Human Rights, Trafficking in Persons, poverty reduction and rights of Indigenous people.
Additionally, the Minister said she agreed to raise the age of criminal responsibility in Guyana, which is currently set at 10-years-old. She added that there were also recommendations on make national regulations in accordance with international laws as it relates to decriminalising defamation and developing self regulatory mechanisms for the media.
Rodrigues-Birkett outlined that many of the recommendations require national consultations before they are implemented. “Many of the recommendations have deep cultural and societal considerations and will require widespread consultations before reaching a conclusion that will find favour with the majority of persons in society and indeed the majority of Parliamentarians because ultimately that’s where the laws will have to be amended,” she explained.
The Minister further mentioned that financial considerations will also have to be taken into account for some of the recommendations. “While we have been increasing the Budgetary allocations to the social sectors, we found it necessary to indicate to the UPR Working Group and the Member States present, that we believe the means of implementation for the sustainable development goals, which are being finalised right now, must be very clear to assist small states like Guyana,” she noted.
Rodrigues-Birkett explained that since Guyana has moved up to a middle-income country from a poor country, it no longer qualifies for concessionary financing. On the other hand, Government’s Presidential Advisor Gail Teixeira, stressed that compiling the report to present to the Work Group was a tedious task. She noted that there are two stages to the UPR process and the first had to do with presenting the report to the Work Group, which the Minister had already done on January 30. The final review will occur when each country appears before the UN Human Rights Council, which will determine whether the report will be accepted.
“In they adopt it, and they do normally adopt country’s reports because what comes to them is what has emerged from the UPR Working Group… Once it is adopted in June then it goes into the records and the obligations of the countries begin,” she explained.
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