THE 2017 Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Guyana was released by John Sullivan, Acting Secretary of State of the US Government. It gives Guyana a clean bill of health.

Essentially, since the 2015 ascension to office of the APNU+AFC coalition government, Guyana has pursued a determined path of respect for the inalienable rights of citizens as set out in both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Constitution of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana. The US Report would match performance or practices in a specific country as against these declarations and principles of fundamental human rights.
These form the standard against which countries are judged when their report cards are examined for violations. Very few countries ever live up fully to the expectations much less, the letter of those entrenched rights.

TEN COMMANDMENTS
It appears that Guyana has almost fully met all the benchmarks that would characterise her as a proper democracy. Here are some of the features that distinguished us from past authoritarian states, that the 2017 Report identified:-

* Guyana is a multi-party democracy;
* Government was elected at free, fair and credible elections;
* Plural media enjoy freedom of the press and right to free expression without restrictions;
* Independence of an impartial judiciary is respected;
* There is academic freedom;
* Citizens enjoy right to privacy and non-interference with their correspondence, family and home;
* Right to association, assembly and to protest is protected;
* No suspect has been tortured, or made a political detainee;
* No one has been the victim of extra-judicial killing; and
* Fresh local government elections, not held since 1994, were realised under the coalition government.
Those would form the Ten Commandments of Good Governance, and whilst there remains much room for improvement, it cannot be denied that Guyana has a stable democracy.

PRISON CONDITIONS
The report drew attention to the on-going irritant of both the condition of inmates and the over-crowding of our prisons, which were inherited from the previous administration. The over-bloated Georgetown prisons, with over 3,000 inmates (some on remand for over seven years) caused the fires that completely gutted the facilities. The prison rebellion was put down with not a single prisoner being killed; and only two remain at large.

To deal with prisoners on remand and the backlog of cases, Vice-President Ramjattan, Attorney General Williams and I represented the Executive at talks with the judiciary and the magistracy. At that time, the security forces were still literally dousing the fire of prison unrest that quickly re-ignited at improvised, open-air, holding facilities.

The state released almost $70 million for the establishment of night courts and the recruitment of temporary magistrates. Emergency plans were speedily executed to transfer prisoners to better secured locations, and bids were opened for the construction of high-security, new prison facilities outside of Georgetown.

It could not be possible for all those details to be inserted into a Country Report, but it suffices to say that it was a fair and balanced account. It is good to know that Guyana is no longer reported as a country known for police torture of suspects, extra-judicial killings, summary executions and engagement by the state of high-profile criminals in the nation’s security.

CORRUPT PRACTICES
We have had more than our share of corrupt practices and involvement in criminal activities by members of the security forces, which had developed as a sub-culture of bribe-taking over many previous years. But the report noted that the new government has effectively implemented criminal laws against corrupt practices.

Under successive post-Jagan governments, Guyana became notorious for pervasive corruption amongst public officials, some of whom are only now facing criminal prosecution. That curse of corruption would not disappear overnight, and the report noted that widespread public perception of corruption by officials remained.

Since 2016, new agencies have been established and a menu of measures has been put into place, to address sleaze in public office. The fight against money-laundering and efforts to recover stolen state assets are in their early stages. The integrity legislation was reformed to strengthen the Code of Conduct for persons holding public office, and a new Integrity Commission was appointed to replace the entity that did not function since 2009.

HEALTH FRONT
I wish to now turn to the medical front, to look at Health Expo 2018, which I launched a few days ago. Using my own “after-the-fact” experience of how to be and keep healthy, I appealed to citizens to join with government in promoting better living with good health.
Good health has remained one of the goals of Guyana since independence, to provide countrywide, accessible, free, public health care and services.

Though governments change, our public Health policy remains a fine legacy of commitment to this national goal, which was enshrined in Article 24 of the Constitution of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, as follows:-
“Every citizen has the right to free medical attention and also to social care in case of old age and disability.”

Our constitution also provides for the right of citizens to rest, recreation and leisure. In pursuit of that, our government has encouraged the unique creation of open spaces and the construction of parks and boardwalks for leisure.
This is the framework within which our nation pursues its policy for good health and a better life for all citizens. The question has been though, to what extent could we afford to provide adequate facilities and services for our people, and to spread them throughout our vast country?

Even the cynics would concede that Guyana has an impressive public health system, that has seen improvements incrementally over the years. We would quarrel over the adequacy of beds and the over-crowding of urgent care centres, but at the end of the day, no one is turned away.

HUGE HEALTH BUDGETS
These improvements are easily reflected in the huge national and regional budgetary allocations for the public health sector, as follows:-
In 2012 the state provided $12.8 Billion, which was increased to $28 Billion in 2016, shortly after the coalition took office. This year, (2018), the health vote jumped to $33.3 Billion or 12.5% of the entire national budget!

The free, public health system is a great relief for working people for whom, for much too long, life has been painful and short. Life expectancy has now climbed from 39 years during the colonial period to 65, at which age senior citizens get a state pension.
But demands and pressures on the public health system remain, as our society continues to be plagued by wanton road accidents, injuries from domestic violence, sickness from misuse of alcohol and drugs, and from chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer and heart failure.

I commend Health Ministers Volda Lawrence and Karen Cummings for their great leadership of this sector. I can testify that Minister Lawrence has put in place measures to curb the abuses, especially in procurement of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies, in this sector.

SOLE-SOURCING
Guyanese must never forget the tens of billions of dollars that were given to friends of the former regime in sole-sourcing of these essentials. The drugs lobby had effectively incubated their breed of political surrogates, who in turn would scream periodically about drugs shortages, to create a premature demand – a prescription that would be readily filled through sole-sourcing by the highly favoured cronies.

No wonder that the opposition has taken the drugs lobby to a higher plane and is fighting back, with a vengeance. The aim is to embarrass certain officials for the loss of the dirty loot that has been extracted from the public health sector.
That notwithstanding, Guyana on both the political and medical fronts, enjoys good health.