Dear Editor
OCTOBER 17, 2019, marks the 40th anniversary of the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA), founded in 1979 by a group of individuals drawn predominantly from professional, labour, and religious backgrounds. Creation of the GHRA was a response to the infamous referendum that approved replacing the independence constitution by a 14%.vote.

Case-based activities to protect individual citizens against abuse by officialdom–whether planned or unexpected–remains the anchor of GHRA human rights activism. The vast majority of cases handled by the GHRA have involved abuses suffered within the framework of the administration of justice: the death penalty, torture, police brutality, extra-judicial executions, deaths in prisons and police cells, as well as conditions in police lock-ups. Other areas of concern over the years included sexual violence against young women and girls; rights of the Amerindian peoples; gender identity and sexual orientation; people with disabilities and people living with HIV and AIDS.

Case-based approaches to human rights abuses inevitably highlight failures of agencies and institutions and the absence of policies and the limitations of laws which permit them to occur. A second major area of concern, therefore, saw the GHRA engage over the years with constitutional and electoral reforms; the reforming of laws relating to disabilities, children, indigenous peoples, forestry and mining, flood-related/disposal of garbage and climate change, prison reform, sexual offences, the age of consent, termination of pregnancy, sexual orientation, broadcast legislation and national policies and laws relating to HIV and AIDS.

Over the past 40 years, the horizon of rights has evolved, recognising many ways of being human. The third area of GHRA’s work has been to bring awareness about rights through the formal education system, social media, production of campaign materials, training programmes with the police, prisons system, teachers, nurses, HIV carers, persons living with HIV and AIDS, youth and similar training in communities.

An annually elected executive committee has guided the affairs of the association, along with three co-presidents; an arrangement which in the early years reflected the GHRA’s three major sources of membership referred to earlier. A more diversified membership emerged in later years, over 80 of whom have acted as executive committee members for the past 40 years.  Peak membership of over 700 members occurred during the late 1980s and the 1990s, coinciding with the GUARD movement in which the GHRA played a leading role.

The Guyana Human Rights Centre was formally opened on International Human Rights Day 1997, providing a more permanent home after almost 20 years in a series of dilapidated or very modest dwellings. In an era in which Guyanese activism is overly dependent on external funding, it remains a source of much satisfaction that the centre was built from funds raised by the current and past membership.

Forty years as a civil society institution has been the work of many hands which a wide range of persons can rightly commemorate. The GHRA has been able to operate on modest budgets, thanks to the generous volunteer spirit of many people and the solidarity of a range of business, religious and charitable organisations.  While much remains to redress with respect to enjoyment of human rights in Guyana, these many persons may justifiably consider that without their efforts, the situation would have been much worse.

The 40th anniversary is initially being commemorated by an exhibition highlighting some of the events of the GHRA, from October 17th to October 24th at the National Library.  Mini-exhibitions will also be mounted at regional libraries and the General Post Office.
Regards
GHRA Executive Committee