Jamaica responsible for violating gay rights -- IACHR (March 5, 2021)

 Jamaica's government is responsible for violating the rights of two gay people and the country’s homophobic laws should be repealed immediately, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The report, which is from 2019 but could not be reported on before, sets a precedent for LGBT rights across the Caribbean, reports the Guardian. It is the commission’s first finding that laws that criminalize LGBT people violate international law.

The two Jamaicans who brought the case — Gareth Henry and Simone Edwards — convinced the IACHR that Jamaica's laws against buggery and gross indecency violates their rights and legitimises violence towards the LGBT community in Jamaica. These laws were originally imposed by the British colonial administration in Jamaica and still remain on the law books even though Britain has since abandoned those provisions, reports the Jamaica Observer.

Jamaica is one of the nine countries across the Caribbean that still criminalizes homosexuality and has the worst reputation. Time magazine labeled Jamaica the "most homophobic place on earth" due to the atrocious attacks and brutal murders of LGBTQ people, reports the Bay Area Reporter.

The IACHR decision reflects a "positive wave within local and regional judicial bodies as noted in Belize, Trinidad and Guyana to affirm and protect the human rights" of LGBT people in the Caribbean, said J-FLAG (Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays).

The decision is a watershed moment, writes Henry. "Unlike my numerous appeals to the police for justice, such a well-reasoned and categorical judgment from an authority of this kind cannot be easily dismissed." (Guardian, see last Thursday's briefs)

IACHR's recommendations are non-binding, but Jamaica's Supreme Court decide in a case decriminalize homosexuality this month.

When it comes to" hotly contested issues such as LGBTQ rights and abortion, the Inter-American system is the wrong venue for change," argues Robert Carlson in Global Americans. "Instead, advocates should embrace a two-pronged approach, pushing the envelope at the domestic level while reinforcing well-established rights through international institutions."

In fact, Jamaican activists have carried out a multipronged approach, wrote Maurice Tomlinson last year at Erasing 76 Crimes "including delivering police LGBT sensitivity trainings, working with and amplifying the voices of progressive faith leaders, encouraging foreign leaders to engage our politicians on constructive ways to end homophobia, and also hosting Pride events to increase visibility of the queer population." Activists have combined suits in international forums with challenges before the region's senior tribunals.

Democratic Governance

• A bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives this week would enable Puerto Rico to be admitted into the United States as a full-fledged state — a proposal that faces an uphill battle, despite optimism from proponents that a Democratic-majority legislature might push the initiative forward, reports the Miami Herald. Island residents would participate in a federally binding election called by the governor to choose whether or not Puerto Rico should immediately be granted statehood.
  
• But a group of 80 progressive organizations are pushing for passage of an alternate bill, the Puerto Rico Self-Determination Act of 2020, presented by Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Nydia Velázquez. Advocates say this proposal would ensure that Puerto Ricans have access to "a legitimate, accountable and inclusive process for decolonization and self-determination." (NBC News) The bill calls for self-determination, but doesn't advocate for one solution, like statehood. Instead, a group of delegates — elected by Puerto Rican voters — would study the issue and come up with a plan for the island’s territorial status, which includes such solutions as statehood, independence or a free association. (Axios)
• The two bills reflect a growing divide within the Democratic Party about whether statehood is actually the best solution for Puerto Rico, reports Axios. "Statehood advocates lack urgency, grass-roots organization, a clear narrative and a united front," argues Julio Ricardo Varela in the Washington Post. "Only the power of a true popular movement will send the message to Congress to act with moral obligation, as opposed to doing what it has always done."
• Thousands of Haitians protested a growing wave of for-ransom kidnappings, and again called for the departure of President Jovenel Moïse, last Sunday in cities around the country. It was deemed the largest demonstration since anti-government protests resumed earlier this year, and was organized by some of the country’s most prominent Protestant pastors and supported by various civic groups, political organizations and unions, reports the Miami Herald.
• Haiti's constitutional crisis has brought much of Haitian society to a standstill: the education system has been paralysed and businesses are running at half-speed. Associations representing the country’s judges have called for a work stoppage, writes Ralph Thomassaint Joseph at Al Jazeera.

• Haitians have had enough of the government, but President Jovenel Moïse won't leave as long as he has U.S. support, writes Amy Wilentz in The Nation.

• The Cayman Islands' Human Rights Commission has raised objections to coronavirus quarantining voters missing out on casting their ballot during the 14 April general election. (Cayman Compass)

Migration

• The Dominican Republic plans to construct a fence along its 376-kilometer border with Haiti, a move aimed at curbing unauthorized migration and illicit trade, DR President Luis Abinader announced Sunday. He specifically said it would limit drug trafficking and movement of stolen vehicles. The barrier will include a double-fence in the “most conflictive” sections, along with motion sensors, facial recognition cameras and infrared systems, he said in an address to Congress. (Reuters, BBC)
• Experts say the Dominican Republic government's plan to build a wall (or fence, rather) along the Haitian border won't work to reduce illegal migration unless it is accompanied by development projects in the border area, reports AFP.
  
• The U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials acknowledged internally that deported Haitian immigrants “may face harm” upon returning to their home country due to violent crime and the political instability that has rocked the country in recent months, according to documents obtained by BuzzFeed News.
  

Covid-19

• Two of Cuba's four nationally-developed vaccine candidates will begin their third and final trials this month, reports CNN. Soberana 2 will now be tested on 44,000 Cubans, as well as thousands of people in Iran and Venezuela. Mexico could potentially also take part, reports the Financial Times. 

• Officials say Cuba will export its Covid-19 vaccines at cost price plus a small margin to support its free universal healthcare system. Patents may be licensed abroad for production and vaccines donated to the poorest countries. Cuban scientists say they expect their vaccines to be a game changer -- not just against the rising Covid numbers but also for the disastrous impacts of the pandemic on their economy. 
• More than 168 million school children globally missed out on learning in class, as schools in some 14 countries remained largely shut for almost an entire year due to coronavirus-related lockdowns, according to a new UNICEF report. Nine of the 14 countries, where schools remained mostly closed between March 2020 to February 2021, are in the Caribbean and Latin American region, affecting nearly 100 million students.
  
• Education budgets declined after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 65 percent of low- and lower middle- income countries, according to a World Bank and UNESCO study. Lower-income countries are more likely to continue a
  decreasing trend in their education budgets or to shift from a positive to a negative trend after Covid. 
  

Climate Justice and Energy

• Oil extraction contracts signed between governments and companies organize the sharing of this economic wealth between populations and companies. The case of Guyana's contract with ExxonMobil demonstrates the importance of such contracts being public, writes François Valérian at the Transparency International blog. Investigative reporting found that Guyana might have been deprived of at least several tens of billions as a result of its contract with Exxon, he writes.

• Caribbean leaders warned the region is facing the twin threats of climate change and COVID-19 during the Green Climate Fund’s Regional Dialogue with CARICOM. The Fund stressed its commitment to bolster Small Island Developing States within the Caribbean region, particularly with increased support for adaptation and resilience measures. 

• Professor Mimi Sheller, a key theorist in critical mobilities research and in Caribbean studies, discussed her book "Island Futures: Caribbean Survival in the Anthropocene" at the Caribbean Studies Network. 

• A Kaieteur News investigation questioned Guyanese government assertions that the country cannot take action against oil major ExxonMobil for flaring at the Liza Phase One extraction site. Guyana vice president Bharrat Jagdeo said the company's contract permits it to flare up to 14 billion cubic feet of natural gas at the Liza One extraction site. However the number is not in the approved Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), according to Kaieteur.

• Mangrove forests with greater species diversity can store more carbon, according to new research published in the British Ecological Society journal Functional Ecology.

Debt Relief and Just Recovery

• Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Keith Rowley called for a "refinancing of COVID-related debt and the postponement of debt servicing payments; comprehensive debt relief; and appropriately priced funding to build economic and climate resilience," at the the launch of the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center’s new Caribbean Initiative.

Gender and LGTBQI

• Recent cases of horrific femicides in Trinidad and Tobago have cast a spotlight on culture of misogyny and gender violence in the country, but also on the country's inept criminal justice system, write Jada Steuart and Janine Mendes-Franco in Global Voices.

• Barbados' Ministry of Labour and Social Partnership Relations and UN Women launched a Gender-Based Violence in the Workplace Project. The new effort comes after a year in which gender violence increased dramatically during lockdowns  in Barbados, and in the Eastern Caribbean. U.N. Women representative Tonni Brodber  the partnership was relevant because using the workplace as a site of control by perpetrators of intimate partner violence has been practiced in the Caribbean. (Barbados Today)

• Bahamas' cabinet is all male, after the resignation of former Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Lanisha Rolle, who was the only woman in Cabinet. (Eyewitness News)

Public Security

• More than 400 inmates have escaped and 25 people have died in a Haitian prison breakout, the country’s largest and deadliest one in a decade, reports the Associated Press. The breakout a week ago was believed to be an attempt to free gang leader Arnel Joseph. He escaped, but died Friday in an exchange of gunfire with police, after being spotted at a checkpoint in the town of L’Estere, reportedly still wearing prison chains on his ankles.
  


• Illegal fishing off the coast of French Guiana surged amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as French maritime patrols struggled to mobilize resources, luring illegal fishing crews to the country’s pristine waters, reports InSight Crime.

Drug Policy

• A bill to legalize cannabis for adult use is advancing in Bermuda, but the UK is likely to withhold support. (Cannabis Wire)

Culture

• Bunny Wailer, the co-founder and last living member of Jamaican reggae group the Wailers, who took Bob Marley to global stardom, has died aged 73 -- Guardian. (See also Washington Post.)

• Part II of Caribbean National Weekly’s “Evolution of Jamaican Music: From Revivalism to Reggae" looks at Rocksteady: the Jamaican musical genre that succeeded ska, growing in popularity in the late 1960s.

• The documentary Madan Sara focuses on the lives of Haitian women who are simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary. Filmmaker Etant Dupain told Ms. Magazine that he saw Madan Sara as a “different way to introduce people to Haiti.”

• The 11th annual Caribbean Fine Arts (CaFA) Fair, which starts March 10, is taking virtual format. Countries represented in the fair include Barbados, the Bahamas, Dominica, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. (Repeating Islands)
  
  

Events

5 March

• The Impact of Venezuelan Migration on T&T: A Geopolitical Analysis -- Venezuelan Migration Zoom Event
  

22 March

• Ameena Gafoor Institute for the Study of Indentureship and its Legacies -- inaugural seminar on ‘Slavery and Indentureship: the Concept of Coolitude’

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