Whim-Bloomfield NDC residents were denied their rights by GECOM

Dear Editor,
Any country, by adopting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, has agreed that its citizens will benefit from all their basic rights; that every person, regardless of race, religion, gender, ethnicity, age or wealth has the right to receive and enjoy. Under the Guyana Constitution, it must be noted that “the interpretation of the fundamental rights provisions in this constitution, a court shall pay due regards to international law, international conventions and charters bearing on human rights “.
The human rights treaties are at the core of the international legal system for the promotion and protection of the human rights of every man, woman or child. International human rights standards were developed to protect people’s human rights against violation by individuals, groups or nations. Every UN member state is a party to the major human rights treaties. Guyana has demonstrated its commitment to the preservation of the rights of all citizens at a working session of the United Nations committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights held in Geneva Switzerland in 2015.
The recent decision at the High court in Berbice where 51 persons were denied their rights to withdraw their names from an AFC document which ensured that the AFC can nominate candidates at the present LGE; The issue is whether this decision was made in haste, political judicial pressure, doctored police reports(Minister intervention), or because GECOM had already printed the ballots for the LGE, and as such the judge had no other option but to rule and in a way that denied these people their rights to withdraw their names-and support- from the AFC documents irrespective of trickery or not.
In Article 2 of International Human Rights Declaration it states: “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political jurisdictional or international status ……” this evidently ensured that even if people want to change their marriage, religion, nationality etc they have a right to, providing they follow the constitutional process.
The people’s rights of Whim – Bloomfield, however, were disregarded when their decision to remove their names from AFC backers’ lists was rejected -despite legal authorised documents presented to GECOM and the court to indicate their choice- and unfortunately, they were forced to support the AFC.
The UN GHRA and the international community should pay careful attention to what is actually happening in Guyana.

Regards,
Zamal Hussain