The promotion and protection of human rights has been a major preoccupation for the United Nations since 1945, when the organisation’s founding nations resolved that the horrors of ‘The Second World War’ should never be allowed to recur.
Respect for human rights and human dignity is “the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world, the General Assembly declared three years later in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Over the years, a whole network of human rights instruments and mechanisms has been developed to ensure the primacy of human rights and to confront human rights violations wherever they occur.
However, human rights bodies are supposed to be politically neutral and do not get involved in party politics, restricting themselves to the issue of safeguarding human rights such as freedom of association, freedom of expression, freedom to belong to a political party, etc.
However, while many human rights organisations stick to the mandate and demonstrate a clear understanding of their roles, there are some that do not seem to understand their role or are deliberately stepping out of bounds.
One such association is the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA). If there was any doubt about this it was dispelled with the association’s recent statement that should there be a snap election, ethnic tensions would rise. It is puzzling how the GHRA arrived at such a conclusion, but more importantly is the question of why should this organisation be getting involved in electoral matters.
Is the GHRA saying that if the opposition uses its one-seat majority to make it impractical for the government to manage the affairs of the country, then the President should not call elections and in so doing allow the country to degenerate into chaos and confusion? Or is it a case of whether the GHRA is afraid that a snap election could result in the PPP/C regaining an overall majority of seats in the National Assembly because this would clearly not suit its latent agenda.
The GHRA has also sought to defend the opposition’s almost $21 billion budget cuts, causing a letter writer in this newspaper to ask the pertinent question as to whether the GHRA is another mouthpiece for the opposition.
The ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), as expected, responded sharply and strongly to the GHRA statement.
According to the PPP/C, one would expect that the human rights organisation of any country, or an organisation that has a human rights orientation, would adopt a position publicly and privately that ensures it canvasses for positions that are supportive of human rights and the welfare of people.
The statement issued by the GHRA seems to have moved away from that role of being an advocate for human rights issues, and has now further descended into the opposition’s partisan political realm.
The PPP/C has no apology for representing the interest and welfare of all Guyanese, especially Amerindians, women, children and young people who have, in all regions, been affected by these unjustified and unwarranted budget cuts that have led to the slowing or cessation of government goods and services.
The party also correctly pointed out that it appears that only the GHRA is not aware that it was the joint opposition which slashed the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) budget to $1, and it has been the opposition which had constantly tried to hamper the work of the commission, either by resorting to the courts or by other means, which had failed.
Such a deafening silence by the GHRA on this issue, amplified even more based on its allegations, is most damning on the credibility of this organisation, the party charged.
The GHRA must recognise that even the opposition politicians know that their budget cuts are indefensible, which is why their justifications have been constantly shifting and, as such, rather than attempting to defend the opposition it ought to have taken a position which advocates human rights rather than their current position which deprecates human rights.
The time has come for the opposition-aligned GHRA to drop its pretension of being an independent and objective body. The Guyanese public will not be duped by its political charade, the party asserted.
Indeed, it is time that the GHRA drop its pretension of being an independent and objective body. Perhaps it should contemplate competing at the next national elections because it seems to be more of a political outfit rather than a human rights advocacy grouping.