Guyana bows to UN pressure, moves to abolish Death Penalty

…Homosexuality Laws also on Bill of measures for repeal

Having made the commitment to the United Nations, the Guyana Government will shortly be moving to parliament with a view to abolishing the nation’s death penalty laws.
This was confirmed by Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Jennifer Webster, yesterday when asked about the reports.
According to the Human Services Minister the relevant amendments to the legislation that will deal with the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transvestite (LGBT) Community will also be dealt with.

Human Services and Social Security Minister Jennifer Webster

Those laws deal primarily with sodomy and cross dressing.
According to the current laws of Guyana, “buggery’ is a criminal offence. It is an offence for a woman to wear male clothing or for a male to wear female clothing.
The Minister assures that given the contentious nature of the issues to be dealt with, the matter will be sent directly to a Special Select Committee.
The Minister assured that at this Parliamentary level the government will be seeking the widest consultations possible and reminded of the contentious nature of the matter at hand.
She said that the Government will, at the level of the Special Select Committee, be soliciting the input from a wide cross section of Guyanese before the amendments are voted on in the House.
In 2010 when Guyana presented its report to the United Nations Human Rights Council the body had inquired about progress made.
Another request on the progress made had again been requested when Webster made a recent presentation to a United Nations Body and the commitment was made to have the matters reach the house before the August recess.
At its appearance before the UN Council in May 2010, Guyana received 112 recommendations and accepted 57, agreeing to consider the remaining 55 in due course. “Guyana continues to work towards effectively strengthening the implementation of the 57 recommendations it supported and those others to which it has made further commitments in accordance with its capabilities. “Recommendations which could not be accepted, relate to issues that have been subject to intense debate in the past and more recently among all stakeholders. The debate on these is ongoing and will be decided democratically,” it said.
Among the recommendations that were still to be taken on board  were the abolition of the death penalty as well as discriminatory laws against gays and lesbians.
Corporal Punishment was also another hot topic and according to Webster, this issue will be dealt with at the Parliamentary level.
In the past the Guyana Government had argued that the 2003 attempt to include “sexual orientation” under constitutional protections failed to receive the support of the National Assembly.
“Despite this, there is no discrimination by the state against persons based on their sexual orientation. Guyana does not deny that there may be interpersonal prejudices based on cultural attitudes and religious views,” the government said. “No case of discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation has been brought to the courts, nor is there any known report before any of the human rights commissions or the [PCA], nor any reported violence targeting persons based on their sexual orientation.”
At that time it was said that Guyana is voluntarily committing to hold consultations on this issue over the next two years and based on the outcome of this democratic process, these will be reflected in Guyana’s laws.