GEORGETOWN, Guyana – Guyana's government says it is working to complete its written responses questions raised by the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Committee (HRC) earlier this week.
Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo at news conferenceIn addition, Georgetown is reminding that the constitutional framework of a democratic country like Guyana prohibits the executive from conducting investigations in high-profile matters such as corruption.
The HRC was established to monitor the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). It Is a body of independent experts that monitors the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by State parties.
Earlier this week, Governance Minister, Gail Teixeira told the HRC that on the issue of no investigation into alleged corruption by Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, no one had lodged a police complaint about the claims that had been made in a US Vice News report.
“There is no follow-up on it because there was no police report made by Vice News or anybody else and so the police cannot investigate without some form of report or complaint,” she told the UN Human Rights Committee, adding that Jagdeo had publicly responded to those allegations in media that had carried the issue.
Jagdeo, speaking at his weekly news conference on Thursday, expressed concern that Teixeira, was not given enough time to provide appropriate responses to the queations posed by the HRC.
“The problem is that if you ask 70 questions and you don’t give us time to respond, like Gail Teixeira complained. You asked all these questions. People hear all these questions but they should also hear the answers…
“We’re working on that [report] now and the responses have to go soon … every one of these issues we’ll address in writing and we will ask them to publish our responses to the questions – we will publish them too,” Jagdeo added.
He also questioned the failure of certain local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) make public their shadow submissions by to the committee.
“[There are] not many countries that allow individual complaints … The US, and UK do not allow individual complaints. We have allowed that to happen…we want to see for transparency purposes; we’d like to see all the submissions. You can see our submission from government … this is a body that enhances great transparency, so it should be transparent on how it works too,” Jagdeo said.
He said that some of the issues raised by the HRC were similar to “unsubstantiated narrative” by opposition legislators, who since 2020 have accused the present administration of wrongdoings.
“They [opposition] can’t find resonance here in Guyana, nobody pays attention to them … so they go to the international bodies,” he said.
Jagdeo insisted that all the allegations and concerns that were brought up before the HRC had been comprehensively addressed by the government in its third International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) report.
Guyana in 2020, was asked to submit its ICCPR report, which was subsequently submitted in 2021, outlining in detail the advances made by the government in civil and political rights.
“We’ve addressed issues of corruption, rigging of elections etc. All of these are addressed in our main submission,” he added.
Meanwhile, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, SC, has said that that the constitutional framework of a democratic country like Guyana prohibits the executive from conducting investigations in high-profile matters such as corruption.
He said that this power is delegated to legally instituted semi-autonomous bodies as he responded to remarks made by the United States representative on the HRC, Laurence Helfer, regarding the Guyana government’s alleged failure to investigate corruption reports involving the vice president, judiciary, and police.
Nandlall said that Helfer’s question, however, validates his misunderstanding and unacquaintance with Guyana’s legal architecture.
“You have the Guyana Police Force, you have the Auditor General’s Office, you have the Guyana Revenue Authority…All these agencies are not government, they are state agencies. The people who are asking these questions, they are unacquainted with and not educated about our governance structure,” Nandlall said.
He said that if the head of state had to initiate an investigation into the judiciary, the country would be in turmoil and the government would be severely criticised.
“You will hear…that is interference with the judiciary, that [the] executive is pressuring the judiciary. You will hear about undermining and violating the doctrine of separation of powers…Yet you have a person who doesn’t understand these ramifications.”
Nandlall challenged Helfer’s assertion that the public was frustrated with the non-investigation of claims of corruption.
“Which segment of the public is frustrated by this allegation?” he questioned, adding that it is only members of the main coalition opposition, A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) are pursuing these allegations in the public domain, driven by political self-interest. He said that this same political tactic was unleashed pre-2015 leading up to the general and regional elections.
