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Last Updated: Feb 26, 2017 - 4:54:36 PM |
 Amnesty International have released their Annual Report on the State
of the World’s Human Rights along with new facts and figures,
audiovisual material and other resources for the media. They report on 159 countries.
The report states, "Widespread ill-treatment and other abuses against irregular
migrants from countries including Haiti and Cuba continued.
Bahamians voted “no” in a constitutional referendum on gender
equality in citizenship matters in June. Discrimination
against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex
people continued."
"Local human rights groups expressed fear regarding government surveillance online. In August, the Supreme Court ruled that the Minister of Education had breached the constitutional rights to privacy and to freedom of expression of members of an environmental group when he obtained and read their private email correspondence in Parliament. Ministers had alleged that the group was seeking to destabilize the government, and argued that parliamentary privilege allowed them to read out the confidential emails. The Court held that parliamentary privilege was subject to the supremacy of the Constitution, and ordered the destruction of the correspondence. At the end of the year, it remained unclear how the government had obtained the emails."
"In November, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights granted precautionary measures to members of the environmental group who allegedly received threats against their lives and personal integrity because of their work as human rights defenders. The government, in response, said the allegations were misrepresented."
The 2016/2017 report also added a new section on discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people, and highlighted the failed gender equality referendum, noting that, "the result maintained inequality in Bahamian laws so that women and men pass on citizenship to their children and spouses in different ways. The result put at risk the citizenship rights of families, in particular the risk of separation of families with diverse nationalities or children born outside of the Bahamas to Bahamian parents."
To read the full 2016/17 Report on The Bahamas click HERE.
© Copyright 2017 by thebahamasweekly.com
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