Human rights advocacy is essential

Jamaica's human rights groups, lobbyists and activists are terribly misunderstood, maligned and badly unappreciated. The more crime there is, the more they are criticised because many people erroneously believe that human rights should be sacrificed in times of crisis and denied for those suspected, accused or convicted of crimes.

In my own unscientific anecdotal survey, most people say that human rights advocates only seek to protect criminals and not the victims of crime or members of the security forces that are harmed or killed by criminals. That point of view demonstrates a fundamental lack of understanding of the mandates of human rights advocates. At great personal sacrifice and without self-aggrandisement, they monitor unjust and/or oppressive laws and protect every one of us from abuse (especially by the State).

Human rights advocacy is not always about upholding the rights of people associated with criminal activities. Amnesty International defines human rights as, "the basic rights and freedoms that all people are entitled to regardless of nationality, sex, national or ethnic origin, race, religion, language or other status".

If we were a country besieged by racial and/or ethnic oppression, human rights advocacy would be concentrated on protecting and defending the racial or ethnic underdog. However, as it happens, Jamaica has a long history of police brutality, governmental unaccountability, extra-judicial killings, cruel and inhumane treatment of wards of the State and a general tendency to ignore the human, civil and legal rights of our poor and those supposedly or actually linked to crimes.

Consequently, our human rights advocates are often preoccupied with ensuring that everyone is protected from unjust laws, harsh dictums and unfair treatment ... in accordance with the Constitution. Unfortunately, their motives are often misinterpreted, so much so that one usually well-thinking commentator echoed the sentiments of many Jamaicans when he lambasted human rights advocates, saying that they "have lost touch with the common Jamaican reality and can't see the forest for the trees', "seem to have a problem for every solution, and appear to be against everything all the time, without ever coming up with any practical proposals of their own". He accused them of "legalistic nit-picking of every single crime-fighting bill put forward", of being "wrapped up in their bleeding-heart liberal ideologies" and a "minority of crazy naysayers who are not happy to see fewer Jamaicans being butchered every day".

Human rights advocates seek to ensure the just and humane treatment of every citizen. I know for certain that the Independent Jamaican Council for Human Rights (the oldest non-governmental organisation in the English-speaking Caribbean) not only works tirelessly to protect everyone's human rights, it also advocates for the victims of crime, reforming inmates of correctional facilities and pre-emptively educates on tolerance and fairness.

Somewhat kin organisations like Jamaicans for Justice and Families Against State Terrorism were formed because of emerging social ills that manifest through corruption, miscarriage of justice and extra-judicial killings.

Contrary to the recent politically motivated propaganda by mellifluous spin doctors, the Government did not attack criminality, criminality attacked the Government. It was the criminal uprising against the State that necessitated a limited state of emergency - not some sudden resolve to tackle criminal gangs. Its suppressive effect on crime was evident but, because knee-jerk reactions have a way of kicking us in the proverbial groin, states of emergency must be used judiciously. To do otherwise would lead to prolonged discommoding, economic losses/distress and risk widespread abuse by the extraordinarily empowered security forces.

Without human rights organisations, we would become victims of unconscionable oppressors and abuse by an unrestrained state.

Garth A. Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com or garthrattray@gmail.com