By Dr Bertrand Ramcharan
Seventh Chancellor of the University of Guyana and
former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) is one of the organizations highlighted in a global study on The Protection Roles of Human Rights NGOs just issued by the publishing house Brill. The historic study of more than 1000 pages has 62 chapters focusing on the courageous contributions of human rights NGOs and their continuing struggle for justice world-wide.
The chapter on the GHRA is titled, “The Guyana Human Rights Association and the Struggle for Justice in Guyana”. It shows that, for most of Guyana’s history as an independent country, the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) has been the leading voice of conscience in the nation, a unique membership-based organization of record, and a promoter of sensible policies, constructive government and justice.
The GHRA was formed in 1979 with the support of trades unions, professional organizations, and churches. It is financed through membership contributions and project-related grants that it receives from time to time from well-wishers. Each government in post-independence Guyana has found the GHRA a thorn in its side, which attests to its independence and objectivity.
The GHRA has its own Headquarters and Secretariat, the Guyana Human Rights Centre, which it built through membership contributions and donations, and which houses its offices and a reference library. The reference collection of the GHRA is probably the best extant source on the history of Guyana since its independence.
The chapter on the GHRA records its contributions in twelve sections, summarised below.
I. Fact-finding and Bearing Witness
Bearing witness and recording gross violations in Guyana has required great courage on the part of the GHRA. Ever since its establishment it has published an annual report that has extensively documented the state of human rights in Guyana and represents one of the best documentary resources on the history of the country. The GHRA has also published numerous thematic reports highlighting human rights concerns and problems and which also are a priceless source for studying the history of Guyana.
The GHRA’s method of operation in documenting violations has been to take written witness statements and to check them for corroboration. It has been, and continues to be, a model of professionalism in fact-finding.
II. Thematic Studies and Conceptual Public Lectures
The GHRA has initiated, conducted, sponsored and publicised a number of thematic studies that have documented, as no other organization in the country has done, the structural and governmental abuses of human rights in the country. Among these are studies on the political, economic and social history of Guyana, breakdowns in democracy, the realization of economic, social and cultural rights, equality and non-discrimination, the plight of Guyana’s indigenous peoples, justice for rape victims, and the treatment of sexual violence cases in the Guyana justice process.
At critical moments the GHRA has also organized conceptual public lectures by distinguished international and Guyanese scholars and experts. When Guyana was struggling with constitutional reforms, following a change of Government in 1992, the GHRA invited the legendary South African Judge Albie Sachs to lecture on the role of the South African Constitutional Court.
When the country was experiencing numerous calls for a different political system tailored to the needs of a pluralist society, the GHRA invited a distinguished Professor of Constitutional Law, Dr. Yash Ghai, to lecture on approaches to governance in a multi-racial country. In July 2013 the GHRA arranged a public lecture by Dr Pedro Walpole, a climate expert from the Philippines, along with a Guyanese expert, Mr Stanley Ming on the future of coastal communities.
III. Human Rights Education and Campaigns
Since its inception, the GHRA has paid particular attention to human rights education in Guyana. Among other things, it has published primers for the teaching of human rights in schools in ways that Guyanese students could relate to. It has sponsored conferences, lectures, and workshops at which Guyanese have discussed the role of human rights in making Guyanese society a fairer one.
The GHRA has run a number of campaigns on issues such as the realization of economic, social and cultural rights, policing, prison reform and corporal punishment.
IV. Intellectual and policy contributions to promoting nation-building and fair governance
The GHRA, continuing its efforts for the modernization of Guyana’s constitutionalism, has advocated electoral reform and worked in conjunction with other civil society bodies to mobilize public involvement in electoral reform, and to engage political parties and civil society in reviewing longer-term constitutional issues that impinge on elections.
V. Efforts for the National Implementation of International Human Rights Treaties,
The GHRA has consistently sought to publicise the international human rights treaties in Guyana, to sensitise government departments and agencies about the provisions of treaties central to their work, to organize seminars and training courses for exchanges of information and views on how the treaties should be implemented in Guyana.
One of the leading programmes of the GHRA ,ever since its inception, has been its work with prison officers and officials to inform them of the pertinent international human rights norms such as the Standard Minimum Rules for the treatment of prisoners and detainees, and to encourage them, through confidence-building workshops, seminars, and training courses, to implement the international norms.
VI. Promoting Racial and Religious Tolerance and Harmony
The GHRA has consistently sought to promote racial and religious tolerance and harmony in Guyana. Its efforts have been particularly innovative and dynamic. The GHRA organized civil society consultations that culminated in an inclusionary vision statement for Guyana at a Symposium on a Framework for Equal Opportunities in Guyana, held in Georgetown on 18 May, 1998. Participants advocated Ten Principles for a New Guyana:
The GHRA’s work with children and its Rights of Children activities and campaigns, have contributed immensely to fostering among the young a sense of being patriotic Guyanese, irrespective of ethnicity. It sponsored the Rights of Children (ROC) initiative in which young people organized themselves and have been holding campaign events in different parts of the country to promote racial harmony. The ROC produced and disseminated maps of Guyana emblazoned with the logo, “Guyana: A Race Free Zone.”
VII. Championship of the Causes of Disadvan-taged Groups such as Indigenous Peoples
Guyana’s indigenous peoples have historically been largely marginalized and without adequate protection of their fundamental human rights. The GHRA led the process of highlighting their plight and strongly encouraged and supported the establishment of organizations of indigenous peoples to defend their rights.
An initial study on mining, done by GHRA in 2013,provided evidence of the difficult circumstances in which young job-seeking Amerindian females found themselves. Whereas young men tended to seek employment in mining directly, young women were more likely to find work in service industries in mining areas, such as hotels, hair-dressing salons and restaurants.
Exploitation of Amerindian female care-givers in the capital city, Georgetown, had been highlighted in a case in which the Amerindian carer had been sentenced to five years imprisonment for slapping the baby in her care. The GHRA’s condemnation of the harsh sentence had forced the case to be re-opened and the sentence rescinded.
VIII. Struggles for the Rights of Young Girls and Women
Historically, young girls and women have experienced many gross violations of their human rights in Guyana. The GHRA has led the fight to expose those violations and to promote greater respect, and justice, for women in Guyana. A GHRA study pointed out that “The judicial process is an experience frequently as traumatic for the victim as the original sexual violence. Rape survivors are bewildered by the coldness, suspicion and humiliating treatment they must experience. Not only, therefore, are they unlikely to win their cases, they can expect to undergo a process or re-victimization.”
IX. Tackling Corruption
The GHRA was at the forefront in highlighting the cancer of corruption and calling for remedial action.
X. Role in Highlighting Despoliation by Extractive Industries.
The GHRA has been at the forefront of efforts to promote the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in Guyana.
XI. Promoting Caribbean Cooperation on Human Rights
The GHRA, throughout its existence, has played a leading role in promoting Caribbean cooperation on human rights. The GHRA has called for, and co-sponsored conferences, for the establishment of regional human rights machinery, specifically, a Caribbean Commission on Human Rights which, alas, has not yet materialized. The GHRA has also initiated and co-sponsored conferences to discuss issues of equality and discrimination in the Commonwealth Caribbean.
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XII. The Leading Voice of Conscience and Justice in Guiyana
The historic contributions of the GHRA to the struggle for justice in Guyana is deserving of study. Scholars and researchers interested in the history of Guyana would be well advised to avail themselves of the evidence in the GHRA’s reference archives in Georgetown and to write up this unique contribution to the struggle for justice, human rights, nation-building, and equitable development in Guyana. The GHRA has truly been the leading voice of conscience in Guyana.
