Witter laments human-rights abuse

Philip Hamilton, Gleaner Writer

Public defender Earl Witter has called for immediate action to stem what he has described as the rising cases of human-rights violations in Jamaica.

Witter, who was addressing the first annual human-rights lecture staged by the Independent Jamaican Council for Human Rights at the Norman Manley Law School last week, said the country had witnessed increasing violations of people's basic human rights over the last 40 years.

"Despite numerous reports about our penal and rehabilitation system, innumerable recommendations regarding the conduct of our state security forces and reformation of organisations, in particular the Jamaica Constabulary Force, human-rights abuses have continued," said Witter.

The public defender pointed to the conditions at the Horizon Remand Centre and Armadale Juvenile Correctional Centre and the military-led operations in Tivoli Gardens last year, which he said further served to tarnish Jamaica's human- rights record.

Similar to rebellions

Witter compared the Tivoli Gardens incident in which 73 persons lost their lives to the events of the Sam Sharpe Christmas rebellion of 1831 where 500 persons were killed and the Morant Bay Rebellion of 1865.

"It took place in the context of a 21st-century Jamaican state which claims to be governed by conventions of human rights to which it is signatory," said Witter.

He said his office, which had received more than 1,000 complaints on the Tivoli Gardens incident, was currently investigating several reports of human-rights abuse allegedly carried out by agents of the state.

Witter said the complaints ranged from extrajudicial killings and malicious destruction of property by members of the security forces, to common assault, detentions and restrictions which were unlawful under the regulations outlined under the state of emergency.

The public defender noted his office was still trying to obtain an independent commission of enquiry into the alleged atrocities carried out by the security forces in Tivoli Gardens, as well as into the death of accountant Keith Clarke at his Kirkland Heights home in St Andrew.

"Apart from the legal obligation, there is, more important, a moral duty to investigate the lawfulness of the death of every single person known to the authorities. If the traditional methods of doing this are not adequate, then special systems must be devised," said Witter.