Jamaica Observer

Amnesty hits Jamaica's human rights record

Amnesty International, the international human rights watchdog, has criticised Jamaica's desire to bring back the gallows.

The London-based group's Jamaica office also called attention to what it claims to be Jamaica's "grave" abuses of international human rights standards, whose principles were enshrined in international law 54 years ago. The United Nation's General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1948.

According to amnesty's local chapter, Jamaica is violating international standards in a number of areas. It cited extra-judicial killings and other abuses by the police; poor prison conditions and the alleged warehousing of mentally ill people in prisons; and a lack of protection afforded to women and children.

On average, police kill 2 to 3 people per week in alleged shoot-outs. Critics often say the shootings were not justified. Police, however, face well-armed criminals and have been targeted in several ambushes in recent months.

Amnesty, in a statement to mark International Human Right Day on Tuesday, said official statistics show "some reduction" in the number of police killings, and it noted the government has acknowledged the need to respect human rights when fighting crime. Patterson himself pledged to respect human rights two weeks ago when announcing his latest anti-crime initiative. He even set up mechanisms by which citizens could report abuses by security forces.

 Amnesty expressed particular concern for Patterson's repeated call for a return to the gallows to fight violent crime.

 The Cabinet on Monday gave the Chief Parliamentary Council drafting instructions for constitutional amendments that would make it easier to carry out hangings after a series of rulings by the Privy Council, Jamaica's UK-based final court of appeal, which the government says limits its ability to implement the law. The government's repeated calls for capital punishment comes against a backdrop of about 1000 murders a year in Jamaica, giving the island one of the region's highest murder rates.

 The Declaration of Human Rights does not specifically ban capital punishment.

 Amnesty International, however, called capital punishment "the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment".

 "It violates the right to life. It is irrevocable and can be inflicted on the innocent. It has never been shown to deter crime more effectively than other punishments."