











BY BALFORD HENRY







Senior staff reporter







balfordh@jamaicaobserver.com















Jamaica has been commended by several United Nations member states for its Charter of Rights, Vision 2030 National Development Plan and the Independent Commission.



However, there are concerns about the treatment of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders (LGBT),violence against women and children, the rights of disabled persons, gender equality, and climate.







This was reflected in information available from the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) on the universal periodic review (UPR) of Jamaica's human rights record which was conducted between May 4 and 15.







A Jamaican delegation led by Minister of Justice, Senator Mark Golding, participated in the meeting of the Council on May 13-15 which considered the country's report to the 22nd session of the review which is done every four-and-a-half years (Jamaica's last review was done in 2010).







Senator Golding boldly defended Jamaica's response to the human rights issues both at the meeting in Geneva, which involved all member states of the UN and particularly the 14 states which were being reviewed on this occasion, including the United States, and in the Senate.







The country's response showed that efforts were actually being made to achieve the economic and social targets of Vision 2030, protect the human and civil rights of its citizens through the provisions of the Charter of Rights which were passed in Parliament in 2011 and reduce extra-judicial killings through the efforts of the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM). However, the right of the nation's LGBT community seems to be raising a challenge that cuts across both tradition and culture in a extremely conservative social environment.







On Friday, Senator Golding presented an anticipated statement to the Senate on Jamaica's participation in the review. The statement, not surprisingly, was highlighted in the media by his references to the country's responses to international requests for relaxing buggery legislation and a softening of the country's position on gay marriages.







According to Senator Golding:







"There were repeated calls by some member states for Jamaica to repeal the buggery law, as it is seen as discriminatory to the Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, and Transgender (LGBT) Persons. Coupled with this was the continued request by some of the member states to legalise same sex marriage and grant more rights to LGBT.







"I assured the Council that the Constitution of Jamaica guarantees basic human rights to all Jamaicans, and indicated further that, in order to create greater understanding of the concerns of the LGBT community, several initiatives have been put in place."







The focus on the LGBT issue may have been linked to the fact that only a day earlier, US Special Envoy for the human rights of LBG persons, Randy Berry, arrived for a three-day visit which ended the day after Golding's statement to the Senate.







According to the report on the visit, the US Department of State said "Berry and United States Agency for International Department Senior LGBT Co-ordinator Todd Larson, who is also in the island, are here to 'discuss the human rights of LGBT persons and other marginalised groups'.







Berry did not attend Friday's sitting of the Senate, although a small number of foreign diplomats, including Political and Economic Affairs Counsellor, US Embassy in Kingston, Cleveland Charles, who sat in the public gallery occasionally taking notes.







Charles left Gordon House immediately after the statement. He told the Jamaica Observer on his way out that there was no reason for Berry to have attended the sitting.







But it is certain that Golding's response will be seriously considered by the US State Department over the next few days, especially in light of the matters they raised at the meeting in Geneva that:







"We are also concerned by laws prohibiting consensual same-sex sexual conduct between adults, as well as violence and discrimination faced by members of the LGBT community (in Jamaica)."







In fact, in its statement to the meeting, the US recommended that Jamaica "decriminalise same-sex conduct between adults."







Golding in his statement to the Senate also responded that:







"I informed the (UN Human Rights) Council that the Jamaica Constabulary Force's Diversity Policy aims to eliminate all forms of discrimination and inequitable treatment toward members of the public, and guides members of the police force in their professional dealings with persons of particular groups, including LGBT people.







"With regard to the issue of incitement of violence, I also pointed to section 18A that was inserted into the Offences Against the Person Act in April 2014 to address this issue, and reads: 'A person shall not produce, record, sell, import, perform in public, circulate or play a recording of, an audio, visual or audio-visual communication that promotes the killing of or other serious act of violence against any other person or category or group of persons..."







But, it is not only the US Embassy which may have been concerned about the minister's failure to give any assurance of repealing anti-buggery legislation and same sex relationships: A segment of the local Christian community gathered in New Kingston on Friday, protested against Berry's visit.







Known as the Love March Movement, the group suggested that his visit was a "sneaky and offensive move to undermine the sovereignty of Jamaica, as well as the integrity of the democratic process".







The protestors also claimed to have 42,000 signatures to petition the Government to keep the buggery law, which they hope to present to Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller.







It was officially stated that Berry's visit to Jamaica was to discuss LGBT rights with representatives of the Government, as well as the religious, business, academic and civic organisations. Dissenters insisted that his primary goal is to work to overturn laws that criminalise consensual same-sex conduct in countries around the world.







The issue is also being aired in the context of the assurance given by Prime Minister Simpson Miller to the local LGBT community on the eve of the 2011 general election that the buggery legislation would be reviewed. There was also speculation that it was a priority issue during her talks with US president Barack Obama during his visit to Jamaica in April.







During a televised debate with then Prime Minister Andrew Holness in December 2011, she said she would consider appointing anyone she felt was most qualified for her Cabinet, regardless of sexual orientation.







She added that she wanted to see conscience votes allowed by the major parties on gay rights issues in Parliament. Although Simpson-Miller earned some criticism, her People's National Party (PNP) won two-thirds of seats in the House of Representatives days later.







With less than two years left in her current term, local LGBT communities as well as those in the North American Diaspora are demanding that she fulfill those promises. So, Golding's statement on Friday would have been a disappointment for them.







Senator Golding actually chairs a joint select committee of Parliament, which is currently reviewing legislation related to sexual issues, including the buggery legislation. It is generally felt that some members of the committee might not be against to relaxing the buggery provisions. However, the priority of that committee completing its work has been reduced considerably since 2014, and the committee has not met for several months.







Although Jamaica's laws do not criminalise LGBTs they do outlaw their conduct, and the majority of the churches want the legislation to be retained.







For example, the Offences Against the Person Act provides that:







"Whosoever shall be convicted of the abominable crime of buggery, committed either with mankind or with any animal, shall be liable to be imprisoned and kept to hard labour for a term not exceeding ten years".







The Act also states states:







"Whosoever shall attempt to commit the said abominable crime, or shall be guilty of any assault with intent to commit the same, or of any indecent assault upon any male person, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and being convicted thereof, shall be liable to be imprisoned for a term not exceeding seven years, with or without hard labour".







It also states that:







"Any male person who, in public or private, commits, or is a party to the commission of, or procures or attempts to procure the commission by any male person of, any act of gross indecency with another male person, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and being convicted thereof shall be liable at the discretion of the court to be imprisoned for a term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour".







Although "gross indecency" is not defined by the Act, it has been interpreted as referring to physical intimacy.







A major concern is section 80, which provides that a constable may take into custody, without a warrant, any person whom he may have good cause to suspect of having committed, or being about to commit any felony in this Act mentioned, and shall take such person, as soon as reasonably may be, before a Justice, to be dealt with according to law.







LGBTs and their supporters claim that this gives the police too wide a discretion in detaining individuals under Section 80. They also claim that it can be used as a pretext by police to detain men who do not conform to gender roles, and women who have sex with women may also targeted for arrest.







Support has also come from as far as the European Parliament which, in 2005, passed a resolution calling on Jamaica to repeal its "antiquated and discriminatory sodomy laws and to actively combat widespread homophobia".







The US and other countries have been consistent over the years in seeking to have these laws reviewed and revised. However, it seems that they are raising the bar too high and too fast for easy assimilation by the government, to the extent that they are now demanding laws to actually protect LGBTs from any form of discrimination, including the right to marry their own kind.







That may have been the fork in the road where they and the government might have taken different directions.







(protest)







Members of the Love March Movement protest in support of the retention of Jamaica's buggery laws. (PHOTO: ASTON SPAULDING)







GOLDING ... defended Jamaica's response to human rights issues





