The Tribune

By JADE RUSSELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

jrussell@tribunemedia.net

MORE than a year after a resolution was passed to establish a Human Rights Committee in Parliament, no members from the House of Assembly have been appointed, and the committee has never met.

St Anne’s MP Adrian White said the resolution’s passage was more about creating a public spectacle and placating international bodies than genuinely addressing human rights issues.

The committee was created to assess and enforce human rights protections, ensuring compliance with regional and global standards. The committee is supposed to report to Parliament every six months, recommend legislative improvements, and investigate alleged human rights violations through public hearings and inquiries.

It was supposed to include five members from the House of Assembly and three from the Senate. However, only senators have been appointed so far: Attorney General Ryan Pinder, Dr Erecia Hepburn, and Michaela Barnett-Ellis.

The resolution was passed on April 26, 2023. The next week, Attorney General Ryan Pinder led a delegation to Geneva, Switzerland, for the United Nations Human Rights Council’s (UNHRC) review of the country’s human rights record.

During his presentation before the committee, Mr Pinder highlighted the passage of the resolution as an example of the country’s commitment to addressing human rights issues.

Mr White said yesterday: “I think it was more of a compulsory requirement that they were meeting for people outside of The Bahamas, and for the public in The Bahamas, it was for show. There has been no activity that I’m aware of from that committee to date, and we continue to have human rights issues.”

Mr White said the committee would help address issues such as gender equality, the rights of people with disabilities, and abuse by authorities.

He also noted that human rights violations by the government have cost taxpayers substantial amounts of money. He highlighted a recent case where the Supreme Court awarded a record $2m in damages to a Jamaican man who was sexually assaulted and beaten while being unlawfully detained in prison and at the detention centre for nearly a decade.

“Those types of breaches of our human rights are things that this committee under the Parliament could be working to correct — not so much on a case-by-case basis, but as a policy so that they don’t continue to occur and cost Bahamian taxpayers,” he said.

He also raised concerns about the inactivity of several other committees, including the House Rules Committee, Broadcasting Committee, Committee for Public Treasury, and Inter-Parliamentary Committee.

He said the Public Accounts Committee, led by opposition leader Michael Pintard, has been much more active in comparison.