The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) says it welcomes the successful efforts of the leadership of the major political parties that resulted in a resumption of parliamentary life last Friday.
The GHRA also says it welcomes the planned enquiry into policing in Guyana. It noted that without seeing the terms of reference, it is confident that the intention behind the initiative is to facilitate the reform and modernisation of the Guyana Police Force to make it an effective and respected police service.
In a press release the GHRA extended congratulations to the leadership of both the PPP/C and PNCR on the "substantial progress which appears to have been made with the naming of the various parliamentary committees and commissions."
According to the GHRA release, "for the first time since 1997 when the Herdmanston Accord set out an agenda for constitutional reform, the benefits of the reformed constitution can now be tested, (and) when functioning properly they ought to transform parliamentary life from the rubber-stamp it was in the past into a forum of genuine deliberation and representation."
The GHRA said the work of the Constitutional Reform Commission and the manner it approaches implementing the rights commissions (Gender, Children, Indigenous and Human Rights) will be crucial. And despite the long delay in arriving at the present juncture it is vitally important that the Constitutional Reform Commission reviews a number of anomalies in the composition and inter-linkages of these commissions to avoid 'turf' wars, over-laps and other undesirable outcomes, the release stated.
Moreover, the human rights body contended that the formulation of the legislation bringing this section of the reformed constitution into being suffered from being bundled rapidly through parliament in order to meet the electoral deadline of March 2001. Now it is paramount therefore that necessary amendments be made before the commissions are appointed and launched, the release added.