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Trinidad and Tobago: ETHNIC SCHISM IN T&T

Haiti: ‘Baby Doc’ continues to evade justice

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The influential human rights watchdog, Amnesty International, has urged members of Trinidad and Tobago’s parliament to vote against a constitutional amendment to resume hangings in the twin-island rebublic.

Under a proposed bill, courts across the republic would be able to circumvent judicial rulings that enhanced human rights protection and ended executions in 1999.

Authorities in the Caribbean nation claim that carrying out executions is a way to tackle the rising number of murders and servev as a deterrent to violent crime.

“Trinidad and Tobago has a real problem with murder and violent crimes, but experience has shown that facilitating executions is not the solution,” said Chiara Liguori, researcher on Trinidad and Tobago at Amnesty International.

“Hurrying executions or ignoring appeals already in progress violates defendants’ rights by denying them due process guaranteed under international law.

“The proposed bill would allow people to be executed even if they were appealing against their sentence, which is their right,” he added.

“We urge parliament not to accept the proposed bill and instead tackle the root causes of violent crime and reform the police and justice systems.

“What may seem a technical change in the constitution is in fact a matter of life and death for many people,” Liguori continued.

More than 40 people are currently on death row in Trinidad and Tobago.

In 1984, the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council said an execution should not be carried out if there’s any appeal or recourse procedure pending on the case.

The new bill would circumvent this principle and allow for expedited executions.

Currently, under a ruling by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, acting as the highest court in the country, any execution carried out five years after the original sentence constitutes torture, which is illegal under the country’s constitution.

“The lengthy appeals process for death penalty cases means that, in practice, no executions are able to be carried out within the five-year period, and most sentences have been commuted to prison terms,” Amnesty International said.

“The proposed bill will ignore that ruling and make the constitution inconsistent with human rights,” it added.

Liguori said Amnesty International is “extremely concerned that the new bill would allow for someone to be executed within a short period after a sentence is passed, not allowing for proper appeals and that others could be kept on death row for years on end.”

Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, has referred to the death penalty as a “weapon in [our] arsenal” to fight the murder rate.

“The government that I have the honor to lead will ensure that this law is implemented and convicted murderers must suffer and pay the ultimate price by having the sentence of death carried out,” she said.

©2011 Community Newspaper Group