The India-based Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative is holding a Human Rights Assembly at the Cascadia Hotel in Port of Spain on Monday and Tuesday ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) that begins on Nov. 27.The assembly's aim is to develop concrete recommendations on how government, civil society and other stakeholders can work in partnership to ensure "the centrality of human rights to the Commonwealth".
The rights group also hopes that it can develop a plan for a more pro-active and facilitating role to ensure that governments live up to Commonwealth ideals and commitments on human rights.
In a planning document for the two-day conference, the group notes that such partnerships are crucial for a sustainable and equitable future. A particular focus will be on the protection of human rights defenders, which it says is a key component in any partnership for the realisation of human rights across the Commonwealth.
Rights groups have been lobbying Commonwealth governments to deny a seat at CHOGM 2009 to the Gambian president because of his record of human rights violations.
Trinidad and Tobago’s Caribbean Centre for Human Rights (CCHR) and the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative have demanded action against Jahya Jammeh for statements he made in September on Gambian television against human rights groups.
The Gambian online publication Freedom has quoted the president as saying, “I will kill anyone who wants to destabilise this country...If you think that you can collaborate with so called human rights defenders, and get away with it, you must be living in a dream world."
Read the story: Rights groups want Gambian leader banned from CHOGM
Opposition foreign affairs critic Jack Warner has also raised his voice on the issue, asking the Manning government in Trinidad and Tobago to state its clear position on the Gambian leader.
Read the story: Warner tells T&T gov't clear the air on Gambian leader
The first day of the assembly will identify common grounds among the participants, and focus on the Commonwealth with discussions on issues of concern regarding protection and promotion of human rights within the Commonwealth.
The second day will focus on specific experiences of human rights defenders, especially from the media and those working to protect the rights of the marginalised.
It will look at what human rights defenders identify as minimum enabling conditions for their work and what expectations they have of partnerships that make it possible for them to work without fear for their life and liberty.
Diana Mahabir-Wyatt, Director of the Caribbean Center for Human Rights, will moderate a panel on civil society experiences in working within the Commonwealth. Derek Ingram of the Commonwealth Journalists Association will be the moderator for a panel discussion on the Commonwealth and Human Rights.
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