Attorney General Ryan Pinder.
Report noted failures in procurement policy and nationality laws
By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune News Editor
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
THE latest United States human rights report says the Bahamian government is contributing to statelessness “through discrimination against women in nationality laws” and is failing to effectively implement laws related to contracts and procurement.
The citizenship criticism comes amid uncertainty about when the Davis administration will amend the Bahamas Nationality Act to equalise citizenship access between men and women.
The US report, released yesterday, said: “Married Bahamian women could not confer citizenship to their children if the child was born outside of The Bahamas. Women were also unable to confer citizenship to their adopted children.”
In March, Attorney General Ryan Pinder said he appreciated the frustration some felt waiting for the government to change the law, but that “buy-in” from the collective was necessary.
Regarding contracts and procurement, the US said: “There was limited enforcement of conflict-of-interest clauses and anti-corruption clauses in government contracts.”
The report also said: “The campaign finance system was unregulated, with few safeguards against quid pro quo donations.”
Additionally, the US noted that although a human rights committee to monitor and protect the enforcement of human rights was established in April, “the committee did not advance an agenda or publish resolutions.”
In contrast to previous reports, the US highlighted progress related to asylum, though it noted that no legal framework exists to govern the matter.
“UNHCR reported improved relations with the government regarding asylum cases,” the US said. “Authorities involved UNHCR in asylum proceedings.”
Comments
hrysippus 8 months ago
This inequality may be part of the reason why my three daughters no longer live and work in The Bahamas despite them having 7 degree, including a PhD Chemistry and Law degrees, between them. Our country's loss, mine as well.
ScubaSteve 8 months ago
You are 100% correct!! And I've got two daughters and they don't live here too. Until the Bahamas Govt, the Church, and most Bahamian men join the rest of us in the year 2024 (rather than the year 1824) -- they won't return.
Economist 8 months ago
This outdated and ignorante attitude is a good part of why the economy is doing so badly. Massaive brain drain. I also have children who, though they love their country, have decided to work in countries where smart deicent people are wanted and apprciated.
Porcupine 8 months ago
Absolutely correct. We speak of education, but as the Front Porch articulated yesterday, we go for job training, not true enlightenment. There is a difference. Equality, well that's another matter altogether. Maybe next century.
LastManStanding 8 months ago
Get real, young Bahamians leaving this country aren't leaving because of citizenship laws, they are leaving because there are no economic opportunities in this nation for them. Unless you are working in real estate, construction, have a middle to high ranking tourism job, or have a good fishing season, there is absolutely nothing for you to do here and the COL is absolutely absurd considering that we are right next door to Florida. The commentor above mentioned his daughter with a PhD in Chemistry but there would be at most a handful of relevant employment opportunities in this country outside of maybe academia or something educational where that degree would be relevant. This country is not easy to forge a living in unless you were born into a rich family or one that is politically connected, and young people see the bright lights of the city overseas and think that the grass is 100% greener over there. Speaking from experience, trying to move overseas brings it own set of challenges. Some things are better, some things are worse; you won't move to the States or Canada and just fall into money.
John 8 months ago
Well there’s been over 100 plus years of gross inequality for Blacks in the US and despite accomplishments and achievements, not to mention slavery and what’s going on in Haiti. Blacks have never been treated as equal or full US citizens. Bahamian law was drafted under the premise that most children would be born in wedlock and that the father was the head of the household and would be the determining factor in the nationality of their children. In this new age where in some countries more than half the marriages end in divorce and a similar number of children are being born outside of marriages then there may need to be some revisions to the nationality law. Then the conflict arises; who takes precedence. If the father wants the child to be one nationality and the mother wants another nationality. Questions has arisen about this when a number of Bahamian women ( some married) were leaving The Bahamas and their husbands and going to Canada with minor children and allegedly getting Canadian citizenship for themselves and the children without the father’s knowledge or permission. So it may be a can of worms that may need to be opened but be prepared for the stink.
newcitizen 8 months ago
John, that was a lot of words, just say what you actually believe. You think women are less than men. You don't think they are equal.
ScubaSteve 8 months ago
Bingo... we have a winner. Well said. And yes, John wishes it was still 1824.
John 8 months ago
For slavery or woman’s rights?
John 8 months ago
If that what you deduced from reading my post then you are very seriously conflicted.. get help!
rosiepi 8 months ago
This article references the status of women in the Bahamas. There is no place for a segue into Black people, Haitians or slavery; though in considering slavery one could make a case for the latter in regards to the statelessness women and their children who are denied citizenship.
John 8 months ago
‘
THE latest United States human rights report says the Bahamian government is contributing to statelessness’.
. The report was generated by a country that is , was and continues to be one of the greatest violators of human rights. To the effect of not only displacing people to a degree of stateless ness but denying them tor opportunity to benefit of their own labor and human capital resources, among other things. And if you compare the amount of women disenfranchised by the law on nationality compared to other human rights not only is it minuscule in reference to The Bahamas but the hostility is absent.
birdiestrachan 8 months ago
what are the people of Gaza and the palestinians who are killed every day have to say on this matter
birdiestrachan 8 months ago
bahamians voted against Bahamian women having equal rights
Twocent 8 months ago
The US says…..so says the nation with the biggest hypocritical record on human rights, equal rights, and all those rights which are not in the US economic best interest! While Americans are lacking housing, access to good food, access to sound health care, access to a justice system that is non-political and actually just, they can’t get back on their feet from numerous disasters, and unemployment is still an issue…the government takes tax payers money, and while the nation is still in mega-debt, sends $61 billion to keep a US provoked war, with global control, religious persecution, genocide, ethnic cleansing and expansionism as the agendas, steaming ahead to failure or nuclear disaster! But it’s the Bahamas that has a gender equality problem we should all pay attention to…lol ? We should be the ones complaining, it’s our country, our people, our children, our future!
JackArawak 8 months ago
Ok twocent. I’m complaining. The government has got to stop kowtowing to the church. The church needs to get out of the first century and The Bahamas needs to give women equal rights
ted4bz 8 months ago
The US all over the place making trouble for everyone. We can mind our own business, now stop it.
birdiestrachan 8 months ago
they send billions to nat nat and he tells them what to say and they call press conferences to say what they are told does our hue have anything to do with all this
John 8 months ago
Talking about human rights violations: why did the US block Haiti’s bud to increase its minimum wage from pennies a day? Because many American companies are in Haiti paying Haitians women and girls too) SLAVE wages. Maybe you can send your children with all them there degrees to work in Haiti. And get paid like the Haitians dem get paid less than a dollar a day,
rosiepi 8 months ago
Once again the point must be made that we are discussing how the Bahamas, not Haiti and not the US, treat women and how Bahamians see their role in this society.
And if the US is 'the greatest violator, etc..etc' why do the young people of the Bahamas continue to leave the land of their birth to seek their fortune there? Especially the women of the Bahamas?
America is hardly perfect, but no one in their right mind would emulate the means of justice, government, education etc that is de rigeur here.
John 8 months ago
What is bullying? When you force rules and regulations on other people or countries that you don’t live by or nevr intended to live by. Why are you trying to force parameters on other bloggers when you who support the article are all over the place with your response. Even with offshore banking , for another example. Which two countries were active in dismantling offshore banking in The Bahamas, but continue to have Billions if not Trillions stashed away in offshore banks? One has offshore banks in the Caymans and the other within its own borders. And they talk about war on drugs! Remember not long when basically every building in Miami and Fort Lauderdale and Nee York increased their height and or added additional buildings and skyscrapers? What was the source of these funds? And remember how they laundered the money by selling ‘unfinished buildings’ for higher and higher prices, thus injecting more and more illicit money into the projects? Yet the same people in The Bahamas and in the Caribbean wanting to access and wanting to scrutinize every account and wanting person to account for every dollar. And to take it a step further; the amount of cocaine flowing into the US has increased TENFOLD since America declared war on drugs in the 1980’s. But the number of drug busts and the number of persons going to jail for drug trafficking has decreased significantly. Explain, explain explain !
juju 8 months ago
The following is NOT right. My father’s family arrived Harbour Island in 1647. 377 years ago! My mother’s family arrived in 1785 as Loyalists. I am a Bahamian woman with Citizenship. I applied for my two American born children to be Bahamians before they were 18 years old. They were both declined. I applied again for both children. Our son was approved and my daughter was declined again. This is not right.THIS IS NOT RIGHT! Foreigners BUY their citizenship in the Bahamas. Our FRIENDS have Bahamian passports for tax reasons, pay someone for their passport, and our Bahamian full blooded daughter has no CITIZENSHIP!
jamaicaproud 8 months ago
Always blaming foreigners. Didn't your family arrive in these shores the same way these alleged "foreigner" arrive today?
I am not being rude, but these laws were not designed to block you, its an inadvertent result by silly men, veggie watchers who don't want your women to marry men from any other land.
Say what you want to say about my country, but once one gains citizenship, they retain all rights and privileges. I went to school with many guys from all over some even from the Bahamas, and once a person was a Jamaican no one care if they came with Columbus in 1492 or Pirate Morgan in the 17th century
John 8 months ago
Your story doesn’t compute at all. According to immigration records, very few children with both Bahamian parents are rejected when applying for Bahamian citizenship. Either tell the truth or stop telling lies, Even with Haitian children born in The BaHAMAS, very few are rejected when applying for citizenship. And the biggest reason is they have a criminal record. And in many of those cases, the applicant is given temporary residency that will allow them to live and work in this country .
Economist 8 months ago
John, I have the details of similar situations that juju is speaking to. They are not Haitan either. Denied, files lost, etc. The whole situation is disgraceful. It is not just the US that looks at us as a backward nation. I really think that by deliberatly holding women back that we are hurting the Country as a whole.
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