Minister of Amerindian Affairs Pauline Sukhai says Guyana’s model for Amer-indian development offers good practices and lessons.
Sukhai made these comments in her address at a forum at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on Tuesday, a press release from the ministry said. In her address, Sukhai said that Guyana’s constitution, laws and policies underscore the “equality of all peoples” and explicitly forbid discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity, gender and religion. “In order to give effect to our Constitutional provisions, five Human Rights Commis-sions have been established namely; the Ethnic Relations Commission, the Gender and Equality Commission, the Indigenous Peoples Commis-sion and the Rights of the Child Commission,” she said, adding that these commissions offer both a constitutional framework as well as a mechanism for redress.
She also told the forum that Article 149G of the Constitution guarantees the protection of Indigenous languages, cultural heritage and way of life and forced assimilation is not tolerated. Further, she said that government respects the principle of
