I applaud the Jamaican Government for not sending representatives to a conference convened in Uraguay by the Inter American Conference on Human Rights.
According to local reporting, the Government of Prime Minister Andrew Holness objected to the conference because of it’s designated heading.
“Reports of Extrajudicial Executions and Excessive Use of Preventive Detention against Afro-descendants in Jamaica”.
The Jamaican Government has objected claiming that the term afro-descendants suggests that these persons are being targeted by the police while more than 90 percent of Jamaicans are Afro-descendants.
The Jamaican Government also contends that it has no representatives in Uruguay where the conference is convened.
Though this writer totally agrees with the position of the government I do not agree with the stated reasons it has cited for not attending.
President of the commission, Francisco Eguiguren, through an interpreter, said he did not understand the refusal of Government representatives to attend, he argued it would have been more helpful if the Jamaican government had attended to clarify its position:[jamaicagleaner.com]
The chairperson speaking through an interpreter lamented that the Jamaican Government did not show up to the talk fest to hear the statements made against it and there they could have basically debunked the charges if it did not agree with them.
In essence what he wants is what they have always done, convene conferences across the globe to accuse poor developing states of human rights abuses in their fight against dangerous criminals.
They love to hear themselves talk yet they never have the courage to challenge the large industrial powers for their systemic racism and genocide against indigenous people of color.
Jamaica is awash in crime and it’s security forces are struggling to cope, the last thing this administration needs is to give relevance to the perception that police officers are engaging in extra-judicial killings.
There are more than enough good that the IACHR can do in the world and so they must target where they can be thoroughly and realistically effective.
On that basis, I salute the Jamaican Government for not wasting a penny of tax-payers money to attend this Kangaroo conference. They are cheap talk fests that demoralize local law enforcement and emboldens criminals.
I wish the Jamaican Government had the cajones to tell them to go to hell and stay there with their fraudulent conference.
The Jamaican people have no more tolerance for these foreigners telling us how to run our affairs.