wfn.org | Church urges Guyana to fulfill human rights treaty obligations

[FRANK_IMHOFF.parti@ecunet.org (FRANK IMHOFF)]

Reports are overdue

GEORGETOWN, Guyana/GENEVA 23 April 1999 (lwi)   The Lutheran Church in
Guyana (LCG) is urging the Guyana government to fulfill its reporting
obligations under the various human rights treaties to which it is a
signatory.

In a letter addressed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Timothy
Critchlow, the LCG president, Rev. Roy K.Thakurdyal acknowledges the
government's good record with regard to respecting and protecting human
rights, having been a signatory to five human rights treaties, but
questions its commitment given that reports relative to four out of the
five treaties are overdue by between six and 20 years.

"The submission of reports relative to the human rights treaties Guyana is
signatory to can only be to Guyana's benefit. We would therefore
respectfully urge that Guyana fulfills its reporting obligation under these
treaties," Thakurdyal writes to the foreign affairs minister.

The treaties in question are: the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights (ICCPR), International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights (ICESCR), Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Racial Discrimination (CERD), Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of
the Child (CRC).

According to the LCG, although the government ratified the CERD in 1977, to
date no report has been submitted under that instrument, and its initial
report is 20 years overdue. In addition, Guyana has not responded to an
invitation by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to
participate in the committee's meetings and to furnish relevant
information. At its meeting in August 1997, the committee noted that the
"multi-ethnic composition of the population and the existence of indigenous
communities in the country make the implementation of the Convention
particularly important", and suggested that the government may wish to
avail itself of technical assistance offered by the Office for the High
Commissioner for Human Rights in preparing its initial report.

Guyana has not yet submitted its initial report under the CRC either,
although it ratified it in 1991. The second report under CEDAW is 12 years
overdue, and a similar one under ICCPR is more than 11 years behind
schedule. The country's second report under ICESCR will be due at the end
of June 2000, states the LCG in the letter to the minister.

A member of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), the LCG has 11,000
members. In January this year, the church hosted a human rights training
workshop in collaboration with the LWF, during which the former undertook
to become more involved in human rights issues.

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Lutheran World Information
Assistant Editor, English: Pauline Mumia
E-mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org
http://www.lutheranworld.org/