Jamaican Leaders in Support of Colonial Anti-Sodomy Law

05 March 2009

Jamaican Leaders in Support of Colonial Anti-Sodomy Law

By Karla E General
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

KINGSTON, Jamaica – Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding has announced his support for the anti-sodomy law that has been on the books since British colonial rule, over 145 years. Golding’s decision flies in the face of international pressures from human rights organizations calling for the repeal of the sodomy act. He stated to Parliament: “We are not going to yield to the pressure, whether that pressure comes from individual organizations, individuals, whether that pressure comes from foreign governments or groups of countries, to liberalize the law as it relates to buggery.” Fellow member of Parliament Ernest Smith took the anti-gay sentiment one step further, suggesting life sentences for homosexuality and the prosecution of LGBT rights groups in Jamaica under the country’s law “against conspiring to corrupt public morals.”

The law banning gay sex dates back to British colonial rule, a colonizing country that has since abolished the law and urged former colonies to do the same. Under the current law, gay sex is punishable by up to seven years in prison. The law itself is buttressed by government inaction and refusal to prosecute for hate crimes and violence directed at the gay community in Jamaica. More than thirty gay men have been murdered since 1997, with only a select few cases being brought to trial. Human Rights Watch has cited Jamaica as having the worst record of any country in the Western hemisphere in its treatment of gays and lesbians. HRW has noted that victims of violence are reluctant to appeal to police for protection because the police themselves have been known to harass and attack men perceived to be homosexual. The police are also known to actively support violence and fail to investigate complaints of abuse.

Golding has also been criticized for his refusal to allow gays in his Cabinet.

For more information, please see:

Miami Herald – Jamaica Leader Vows to Keep Anti-Sodomy Law – 4 March 2009

MSN News – Jamaica PM Vows to Maintain Anti-Sodomy Law Regardless of Criticism from International Groups – 4 March 2009

365 Gay – Jamaica PM Stands Firm on Sodomy Law – 4 March 2009

Human Rights Watch – Hated to Death – 15 November 2004

Khmer Rouge Trials Calls for Prime Minister’s Testimony

By Pei Hu
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – Attorneys at the Khmer Rouge tribunal asked judges for permission to interview Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and former King, Nordom Sihanouk.

Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge member, became the Prime Minister of a Vietnamese-installed communist government after the fall of the regime. Hun Sen ruled Cambodia for two decades and is currently serving as Prime Minister.

The defense team for Nuon Chea asked for the testimonies. Nuon Chea is believed to be the main ideologist for the Khmer Rouge Regime that killed nearly 2 million Cambodian people from 1975-1979. Nuon Chea is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity and faces life imprisonment as the tribunal does not issue the death penalty.

The defense team said that Nordom Sihanouk, the former King who served as a symbolic head of state after the Khmer Rouge took power had “rare access of the Khmer Rouge leadership, their strategies and policies” and was “privy to a range of sensitive information.”

The Associate Press obtained confidential court documents that requested the testimony of current senate president Chean Sim and assembly president Heng Samrin. Chean Sim, Heng Samrin, and Hun Sen were all former Khmer Rouge members who defected to Vietnam before the regime was ousted. “They are likely in possession of much relevant information to the pending judicial investigation,” one of the documents said. All have denied any role in atrocities.

Nuon Chea’s attorney, Son Arun confirmed the authenticity of the documents but said he did not file the requests personally. The Associate Press understood his comments as an apparent move to distance himself from putting Cambodia’s prominent officials on trial.

After long delays, the United Nation backed tribunal begins later this month with Kaing Guek Eav better known as “Dutch” on trial on March 30th. Nuon Chea’s trial is expected to begin later this year.

For information, please see:

AP – Cambodia PM testimony sought at Khmer Rouge trial– 2 March 2009

Asia News –Hun Sen could testify at trial of Khmer Rouge– 2 March 2009

The Star – Politics delays international justice – 3 March 2009

Should Rohingya Refugees to be sent back to Myanmar ?

By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

YANGON, Myanmar – During the 14th ASEAN summit, the Thai and Myanmese foreign ministers reached an agreement allows Rohingya refugees back into the country if they can prove that they are Bengali.  Proof would include confirmation by relatives.  However, the refugees have resisted being returned to Myanmar, saying they would be killed.

Thousands of Rohingya fled to Bangladesh, Malaysia and the Middle East.  According to rights group, Rohingya faced widespread abuses including forced labor, land seizures and rape in Myanmar.  Benjamin Zawacki of Amnesty International points out, “in addition to that, they suffer from what is really systemic discrimination, systemic persecution. Things, for example, like not being able to marry outside their ethnicity, very strict restrictions on movement, the inability to work for the government, to hold jobs as civil servants. They are summarily disenfranchised. They are not able to vote. They are not even held to be citizens.”

The issue is being raised at international level when the Thai military sabotaged t Rohingya’s vessels and abandoning them at sea recently. Hundreds are believed to have drowned.  Currently, about 20,000 Rohingya migrants already live in Thailand, said its foreign ministry.

Malaysia, the biggest number of Rohingya refugees in the region, called for the Rohingya to be sent back to Myanmar. Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi says that Rohingya refugees had become a burden to Myanmar’s neighbor countries.  The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations recently agreed to the solution to the problem.  Rais Yatim, Malaysia’s foreign minister said ASEAN wants Myanmar to promise “not to persecute them when they go back”.  Myamar Junta agreed.

Suaram, a Malaysian rights group, criticizes the call to return the refugees as “inhumane,” and urged ASEAN nations to give temporary shelter to the Rohingya until conditions were safe for them to return home.  A refugee urged the Myanmar neighbor countries to grant political asylum to the Rohingya.  “They are victims of systematic, persistent and widespread human rights violations,” says Zaw Min Htut.  Zaw became the first Rohingya to be granted refugee status by Japan in 2002.

For more information, please see:

CNN – Thailand: Myanmar to allow refugees – 03 March 2009

The Japan Time – Myanmar refugee speaks out for Muslim group – 04 March 2009

International Herald Tribune – ASEAN: Myanmar must treat Muslim migrants better – 04 March 2009

Reuters – Myanmar’s Rohingya: A chronic humanitarian crisis – 04 March 2009

Prison Deaths Result from Inadequate Treatment of Mentally Ill Inmates

04 March 2009

Prison Deaths Result from Inadequate Treatment of Mentally Ill Inmates

By Maria E. Molina
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

OTTAWA, Canada – The Correctional Service of Canada broke its own regulations by holding a troubled inmate in solitary confinement for most of the year she spent in federal prisons before she killed herself.

In a critical report, Correctional Investigator Howard Sapers detailed how repeated bureaucratic failures contributed to the death of a teen who choked herself in her cell in 2007. Guards confused about response policy waited about 25 minutes to call for medical help after they noticed she was choking. They did not immediately check the teen’s vital signs or offer first aid after finally cutting the material from her neck.

The story is one that continues a disturbing and a well-documented pattern of deaths in custody which are the result of under-resources and disjointed correctional and mental-health-care system. The torment of mentally ill inmates who only get sicker behind bars is a growing problem that a buckling corrections system can’t handle.

The correctional service is assessing patients earlier, directing more resources to treatment and training staff better, but many of those changes are new, and it is unclear how well they’re working.  Prisons need to work federal and provincial health and justice and corrections officials to come up with a national strategy.

The health system’s failure to cope with the mentally ill has led to many ending up in jail.
Activists have argued that it is harder for mentally ill individuals who are sent to jails to get into the treatment facilities they really need, and that what is really needed are programs to ensure mentally ill people who break the law are diverted to treatment, rather than prisons.  Correctional facilities are not the facilities to deliver mental-health care. The government needs to ensure the mentally ill don’t get into those facilities in the first place.

For more information, please see:

National Post – System-wide failures led to Ontario teen’s prison suicide: report – 3 March 2009

The Canadian Press – Teen’s prison death ‘entirely preventable’: watchdog – 3 March 2009

The Globe and Mail – Instructed to curtail crushing red tape, guards watched girl die in her cell – 3 March 2009

The Globe and Mail – Systemic failures led to teen’s prison death: report – 3 March 2009

ICC Issues Arrest Warrant Omar Hassan Al-Bashir

Today, the International Criminal Court’s Pre-Trial Chamber issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese president Omar Hassan Al-Bashir.  This is the first time that the ICC has issued such a warrant for a sitting head of state. The office of the United Nations Secretary-General and the United Nations Association of the USA have issued statements regarding the decision.


For further information, please see press releases here and here.