Government will most likely make public its response to the recommendations it received during the United Nations Universal Periodic Review, says Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon.
The HPS was speaking yesterday at his weekly post-Cabinet press conference held at the Office of the President.
He said Guyana’s submission of its Periodic Review will be considered at the 15th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva in September. The HPS said before this happens, the document must be circulated and sent off in advance so that it could be translated into the many UN languages.
Dr. Luncheon said Guyana’s initial presentation and its examination done in Geneva earlier this year was widely disseminated and reported in the media.
After their return from the UPR in Geneva in May, Presidential Advisor on Governance Gail Teixeira and Minister of Foreign Affairs Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, at a press conference, defended Guyana’s human rights record in response to articles in the media saying that Guyana did well on many fronts – including human rights – and that many of the recommendations are in the process of being implemented.
Teixeira had said that Guyana did well at this review, despite what she referred to as distortions and opportunism in certain sections of the media.
Teixeira had said that 57 of the recommendations that were made were accepted by Guyana and the majority of them are being implemented. She said in relation to the 55 that Guyana has to report on, 27 of these recommendations are in three main areas. These are the call for Guyana to establish a moratorium on the death penalty, the call to decriminalize gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgendered activities in Guyana’s criminal offences, and the removal of corporal punishment.
He noted that this second visit by Teixeira will be to present Guyana’s response to the recommendations made by participants of the first meeting. He said that the second meeting, unlike the first one, will allow participation by local and international NGOs.
Meanwhile, at a forum on human rights organized by the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD), and held at the Brickdam Cathedral Presbytery, officials from the body said that they will be lobbying Members of Parliament on the recommendations made at the UPR with a view to agitating change of attitudes and behaviours towards these human rights issues.
UPR responses will be made public – HPS
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