Responsibilities guarantee rights, stresses Malahoo Forte
Published:Thursday | March 31, 2022 | 12:09 AMAsha Wilks/Gleaner Writer
Marlene Malahoo Forte, minister of legal and constitutional affairs, has asserted that while rights are non-negotiable and must be assured and given the highest level of attention, it is fellow citizens – and not the State – who are behind the majority of violations.
“It is not the State at this time that is impacting the rights of the citizens of Jamaica in a negative way, [but] it is fellow citizens who believe that they can do whatever they want, criminally so – with impunity,” she said during a Jamaicans For Justice (JFJ) policy summit on Wednesday.
JFJ, a human rights and social justice organisation, was publishing the findings of its annual report examining the state of justice in the island. The research included a retrospective examination of 297 cases reviewed by the organisation, ranging from states of emergency, arbitrary arrest and detention, to crime and security.
Speaking on the thorny issue of crime and violence, Malahoo Forte urged citizens to take personal responsibility, adding that the human rights framework within the charter of rights needs to be amplified to ensure a balance between the guarantee of rights, personal responsibilities, and the wider public’s interest.
She said that Jamaica has come a long way in terms of how it handles human rights issues, but acknowledged that there was some way to go.
“ ... It is responsibilities that guarantee rights and, every time I read the reports of state atrocities, ... I am strengthened in that perspective that responsibility guarantees rights,” the former attorney general said.
She declined to comment on what her ministry, which was recently established, would be doing in terms of human rights protection, noting that she could not speak about policy issues that have not been fully settled on.
She, however, said that when states of emergency are implemented and people arrested or detained for long periods, it is done to save lives.
“It is oftentimes a very deliberate action taken to protect lives and it is my hope that, sooner or later, there will be a wider discussion with members of the public about what is seen within the communities,” Malahoo Forte said. “The fact that we have been suffering from high levels of crime and violence, it must cause us to probe a little more deeply on what is happening in society.”
She acknowledged that these measures were mainly implemented in vulnerable, inner-city areas, but noted that all should be done to ensure that criminals are dealt with to the full extent of the law, regardless of social standing.
Malahoo Forte also agreed with the JFJ that the State is not entitled to break its own laws in its efforts to get citizens to comply with them.
“We have a lot of work before us, but I do believe that, increasingly, we are understanding that all of us are a part of this work,” she said.