The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

JEAN Rony Jean-Charles’ legal trials symbolised hope for many residents of Haitian descent.

Some closely followed his case as it unfolded in 2017 and 2018.

When news of his death hit last week, they felt a sense of loss.

“People are getting killed in The Bahamas left and right, but his situation was a tragic one because he had some kind of significance in The Bahamas, whether he was a Bahamian citizen or not,” said Wilson Edounord, a 48-year-old who closely followed Jean-Charles’ case.

Mr Jean-Charles, a Bahamas-born child of Haitian parents, did not apply for citizenship when he was between the ages of 18 and 19 as he was entitled to do under Article seven of the Constitution.

Immigration officials apprehended him on September 18, 2017, and deported him to Haiti on November 24, 2017, citing his alleged failure to produce documents that confirmed his identity.

Jean-Charles was deported to Haiti in 2017 for failing to produce documents to confirm his identity. After a judge ordered his return at authorities’ expense, Jean-Charles returned in 2018.

Former Attorney General Carl Bethel said at the time that Jean-Charles’ case placed the government in a position uncovered by law or the constitution and exposed a significant and far-reaching legal challenge over the verification of birth certificates.

The Court of Appeal later overturned the Supreme Court’s ruling.

However, the Privy Council ruled in Jean-Charles’ favour last December. The appellate court remitted the matter to the Supreme Court to reconsider the application for constitutional relief. The case was still pending when Jean-Charles was killed. 

 Jean-Rony’s fight for constitutional relief ended last week when he was fatally stabbed during an argument in the Royal Palm Street area.

“When you were born in The Bahamas, the law didn’t say you had to leave the country. It just said you need some kind of status, but they were just dumping people,” said Mr Edounord. “Jean Rony came and brought light to that.”

Stephanie St Fleur, president of Human Rights Bahamas, recalled the legal matter’s toll on Jean-Charles.

“If we did not have the government bring him back, I think many countless others might have had that same fate,” she said. “You know, for someone who was born in The Bahamas and who don’t know Haiti as home and never went to Haiti, it was bad.

“That’s why I’m actually feeling his death right now because from him coming back from Haiti, he was never the same and then you know he had a lot of trauma he was dealing with. So I was just praying for God to actually help him find his way, but he was working and doing what he had to do to survive but I think from that incident he went through when he came back, maybe he wasn’t the same.”

Melon Gein, a Bahamian of Haitian descent, said much still needs to be improved for people born in The Bahamas to foreign parents.

“I know we’re supposed to apply before 18, but what happens to those when it’s hard to get a job, open a bank account? Nobody wants to hire you without the proper identification, without the proper documents. So all that plays a factor in you applying late because how you make money to apply when it’s really expensive?”