Dear Editor,
THE Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) held its 25th General Members Meeting on October 28, 2024, according to a press release issued on November 2, 2024 by the GHRA. At the meeting, the GHRA reported that a new Executive Committee was elected.
Interestingly, the release only made mention of the former and new Executive Committee Members; there was no mention of who constitute the broader membership of the organization, and the total active members other than the executives.

More interestingly, the GHRA reported that during the years 2023 and 2024, the GHRA issued 15 press releases on governance and election matters. One wonders whether only in 2023 and 2024 do governance and election matters mattered. Or wasn’t the GHRA not formed in the years prior?
What happened to 2020, and 2015-2020? More so, what happened to the ensuing period after the December 2018 No-Confidence Motion, wherein national election was constitutionally due three months thereafter, but there was no election until one year later.

During that period, Guyana was, arguably, in a constitutional crisis, not to mention the unconstitutionality of the unilateral appointment of the GECOM Chair by former President Granger, which, thankfully, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) overturned. How many press releases did the GHRA issue during this period? I have expended a considerable amount of time searching the Internet for those press releases from the GHRA, but to no avail.

Furthermore, it is quite ironic that the GHRA, as a non-governmental organisation (NGO), does not subscribe to that which it advocates for nationally in relation to transparency and good governance.

The GHRA was founded in the year 1979, which means it is a 45-year-old organisation that has never published a single annual report on its activities, operations and audited financials as in the case of the private sector NGOs. This is quite troubling, yet the GHRA comprises a group of individuals who are invariably hostile towards the incumbent PPP/C Government.
Yours sincerely,
Joel Bhagwandin