Political impasse blocks Ethnic Relations Commission
Stabroek News
March 16, 2003
The establishment of the Ethnic Relations Commission will have to await the formation of other constitutional commissions created by recent amendments to the constitution, but which are held up because parliament has not yet enacted the necessary legislation.
These are the Commissions on Indigenous Peoples, Women and Gender Equality, the Rights of the Child and Human Rights. The President refused to assent to the legislation which would have established these commissions after a number of religious groups had lobbied him not to do so because it would have outlawed discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation.
Under the constitution each commission is required to choose one of its members to sit on the Ethnic Relations Commission. These representatives will not have the right to vote.
In the meantime, the Clerk of the National Assembly notified the National Assembly at its sitting on February 19, that the organisations, save for the labour movement, named in the Schedule to the Ethnic Relations Act have submitted their nominees and alternates to be appointed to the Commission.
The persons nominated are Bishop Juan Edghill, Pt Ramkissoon Maharaj, Shahabudeen McDoom, Norman McLean, Dr Frank Anthony, and Cheryl Sampson as the representatives respectively of the Christian, Hindu and Muslim religions, the private sector, youth organisations, and women organisations.
Their alternates are Pastor Roy Thakurdyal, Radha Sharma, Shafeek Khan, John Willems, Dr Rajendra Singh and Leila Austin.
At the first meeting of the Commission, these members will elect a chairman and deputy chairman from among themselves using an agreed consensual mechanism.
With respect to the labour movement, Stabroek News understands that a meeting of the executive council of the Trades Union Congress has named Andrew Garnett to be the representative of the movement but that this information is yet to be submitted to the Parliament Office.
The bill establishing the Ethnic Relations Commission was assented to in August 2000 and the commission should have been in place before the March 19 general elections. However, the invitations to the organisations named in the Schedule to the Act did not go out until late in 2001 and some of the various umbrella organisations that had been asked to undertake the process of getting their organisations to make nominations were tardy in responding.
Among the functions of the Ethnic Relations Commission are to promote
*the elimination of all forms of discrimination on the basis of ethnicity;
*arbitration, conciliation, mediation and like forms of dispute resolution in order to secure ethnic harmony and peace;
*equal access by persons of all ethnic groups to public or other services and facilities provided by the Government or other bodies;
*acceptance and respect by all segments of the society of the social identity and cultural inheritance of all ethnic groups; and
*co-operation between all bodies concerned to foster harmonious ethnic relations.
The ERC is also empowered to investigate complaints of racial discrimination and make recommendations on measures to be taken if such complaints are valid, and where there is justification to refer matters to the Human Rights Commission or other relevant authorities for further action.
It can also investigate on its own initiative or on request from the National Assembly any issue affecting ethnic relations.
The ERC is also required to submit an annual report of its activities to the Speaker of the National Assembly, which must be laid before the National Assembly within thirty days of its submission if the parliament is sitting, and if not, at the first meeting on the resumption of the parliament.
The delay in establishing the commission is one of the reasons given by the PNCR for withdrawing from its engagement with the government and boycotting the work of the parliament.
