OT 335: E-mail from Carlene Alexander, Chair, Equality Cayman

 

I write to bring your attention to Equality Cayman's 18th March 2009 letter to Gillian Merron, MP and the FCO regarding an urgent issue on the Cayman Islands draft Constitution and Bill of Rights. Please find a copy of the letter attached.

 

The Foreign Affairs Committee's review of this matter and ensuring that it is dealt with as a matter of urgency by the FCO would be greatly appreciated.

 

27 March 2009

 

 

 

 

Letter to Gillian Merron MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office from Carlene Alexander

 

I write to you on behalf of Equality Cayman, human rights organisation in the Cayman Islands which has been formed in direct response to the UK's approval of a limited (proposed) bill of rights for the Cayman Islands on February 5th 2009.

 

We are writing to you now as a matter of urgency to request a meeting (via telephone conference call) with you or other senior members of the team in the FCO who are dealing with the Cayman Islands constitutional revision. As you are aware, the Legislative Assembly in the Cayman Islands closes this Monday 23rd March.

 

We are approaching the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) directly now, after a month of appealing to the Cayman Islands Government who have failed to adequately respond. We, on behalf of the people of the Cayman Islands, seek the assistance of the FCO in negotiating with the Cayman Islands Government on a revision to the Referendum (Constitutional Modernisation) Bill 2009 to include a choice on Section 16 of the Bill of Rights between the new limited and the previous freestanding right to non-discrimination.

 

The Cayman Islands Government (CIG) misrepresented the view of the people of the Cayman Islands during negotiations with the United Kingdom on our Constitution, ultimately accepting a Bill of Rights with limited anti-discrimination protection because of the influence of a minority interest group in the Cayman Island's religious preferences which expressly demanded that the Cayman Government be allowed to continue to discriminate against gays in the Cayman Islands in areas covered by a free standing right to non-discrimination. The result of this misrepresentation and disproportionate influence causes significant harm to everyone in the Cayman Islands whose protection from discrimination has now effectively also been marginalised in order to discriminate against gays and transsexuals. The people who are particularly affected by this include all minority and vulnerable groups such as the disabled, elderly, women, and gays who now continue to have neither adequate legal nor constitutional protection from discrimination.

 

We confirmed that this position (proposed by the CIG and approved by the FCO) on the Bill of Rights is unrepresentative of the people of the Cayman Islands.

 

In just 3 weeks, Equality Cayman has gathered over 600 signatures on a petition which urges the Cayman Government to change the Referendum Bill to allow a choice between the now limited and the initial free standing right to non-discrimination.

 

As a Dependent Territory of the United Kingdom, the United Kingdom has power over matters involving international relations and defence of the Cayman Islands, and other areas including matters relating to the relationship between the Cayman Islands and the United Kingdom, such as its constitution, which is why we now appeal to the FCO.

 

Our Constitution and Bill of Rights required the United Kingdom's approval and we understand that this is also problematic with regard to the United Kingdom's international and European Union human rights obligations. We reference an open letter to David Miliband, United Kingdom Foreign Secretary, from Human Rights Watch dated 11th March 2009.

 

The limited Section 16 as currently proposed does not meet the UK's international obligations.

 

In addition to falling short of the United Kingdom's commitments under the Organisation of American States (OAS) resolution AG/Res 2435 (XXXVIII-O/08) on "Human Rights, sexual orientation and gender identity", the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) as detailed in Human Rights Watch's letter, we also note that the United Kingdom in 2007 approved free standing right to non-discrimination in the Constitution of the British Virgin Islands. We also find it unacceptable that the UK has now approved lesser protection for the people of the Cayman Islands.

 

On behalf of the people of the Cayman Islands who our organisation represents, we hope to work together with the FCO and Cayman Islands Government to bring our Constitution to a position which is both acceptable to the majority of the Caymanian people and also in line with the United Kingdom's international human rights commitments.

 

18 March 2009