THE
PPP/C GOVERNMENT PROMOTES HUMAN RIGHTS & EQUAL OPPORTUNITY
By Prem Misir, Ph.D.
Divisive ethnic
rules
Race & Ethnicity
The Commission
Power of the Commission
What Should We Expect
From The Commission?
The People’s Progressive Party/Civic
(PPP/C) Government has had a historic track record of promoting
equality before the law for all persons, regardless of their
race, ethnicity, class, color, religion, sex, age, disability,
or national origin; and has made discrimination against
people on the basis of their race, ethnicity, class, color,
religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin, unlawful.
The Constitution (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 2000 amends the
Constitution by inserting immediately after Article 212,
a number of Articles from 212A through 212F, establishing
an Ethnic Relations Commission, its composition, a Tribunal,
its functions, annual report, and rules.
The PPP/C continues to address the question
of diversity management and the building of national unity,
racial unity, and working people’s unity in Guyana.
Some achievements and proposals in these areas include:
1). A Race Relations Committee established in the 1990s.
2).Prevention of Discrimination Act 1997 - focuses on prevention
of discrimination on grounds of race, sex, and gender particularly
relating to employment.
3). Ethnic Relations Commission now established.
4) The optional Protocol on the UN Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights endorsed; the previous PNC Administration
was not a signatory.
5).International Instruments supported in principle, in
order to enforce the sanctity and protection of human rights
of all Guyanese:
- International Labour Organisation Discrimination
(Employment and Occupation) Convention ILO 111
- Convention on the Rights of the Child
- Declaration of the Rights of the Child
- Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons
- Declaration on the Rights of Mentally Retarded Persons
- Declaration on the Elimination of all Forms of Intolerance
and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief.
6). Activism of the Women Affairs Bureau whose mission is
to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women,
to promote development of their full potential, and to ensure
their integration in the national development of the country.
7). The setting up of the President’s Youth Choice
Initiative, concentrating on youth development in all ten
Regions.
Multiethnic societies need the presence
of an entity as an equal opportunities commission to address
real or perceived ‘racial’ grievances, in order
to reduce ethnic tensions and also correct deficiencies
in human rights. Many of these tensions could be and are
being constructed and reconstructed through petty and some
fringe politicians’ application of divisive ethnic
rules.
Divisive
ethnic rules
White colonialists exerted control through structuring the
society along ethnic lines, that is, demarcating differences
between East Indians and Africans. Departure of these colonialists,
however, created a power vacuum that had to be filled by
the local citizens who were mainly East Indians and Africans.
But competition and struggle to occupy this vacuum was governed
by the divisive ethnic structures imposed upon ex-slaves
and ex-indentured servants in the colonial era. Some divisive
ethnic structures included sustaining a total institutional
structure for East Indians on the sugar plantations, resulting
in minimal interactions between East Indians and Africans;
restricting the marketing of African products; using taxes
paid by Africans to subsidize East Indian immigration, in
order to maintain a cheap labor rate, among others.
Today, some fringe politicians attempt
to apply similar divisive ethnic rules for capturing the
prized legal-political stage, that is, control of the government
and state. These divisive ethnic rules create ethnic tension,
leading to perceived or real allegations of racism. In the
next section, therefore, we shall review explanations of
race and ethnicity, as these terms are used loosely. Erroneous
applications of these terms are dangerous, in that used
incorrectly may increase ethnic tension in different sections
of the society.
Race
& Ethnicity
It is widely accepted that racism is an ideology that depicts
another group as being congenitally inferior to one’s
own group. This situation of racial inequality is worse
when racism becomes injected into rules and procedures of
organizations that deny opportunities and equal rights to
certain racial groups or individuals; such a scenario is
referred to as institutionalized discrimination (Schaeffer
and Lamm, 1998:297). ‘Race’ refers to a group
of people who perceive themselves and are perceived by others
as different because of biologically-inherited characteristics
(Henslin, 1995:310). Biologically, it is not possible to
identify a genetically isolated group that has special gene
frequencies. Therefore, no ‘pure race` exists. Even
physical characteristics, such as, skin color, cannot appropriately
describe a group as distinctive from another group. Examining
a drop of human blood under a microscope cannot indicate
the race from which it comes (Schaeffer and Lamm, op. cit.:288).
In addition, Schaeffer and Lamm (1998:288-289)
point out that migration, exploration, and invasion have
destroyed the concept of pure races, and have produced increased
racial miscegenation (mixed racial human products). Race,
therefore, is socially constructed and reconstructed by
power holders through stereotypical images to sustain the
subordination of racial minority groups. The biological
characteristics of a person`s race, as skin color, is given
a social meaning, a meaning that is manipulated and falsified
by fringe politicians to gain political advantage.
Ethnicity denotes a group of people with
common cultural characteristics, as having the same language,
place of origin, and values; persons who share these cultural
characteristics belong to the same ethnic group. In this
sense, ethnicity refers to a person’s distinctive
culture. An ethnic group, also, has a distinctive ethnic
identity (Curry, Jiobu, and Schwirian, 1999:193), i.e.,
individuals have interpreted their ethnic roles as integral
to their self-esteem, sense of control, and their ability
to resolve problems. Ethnicity refers, then, to a person`s
distinctive culture and distinctive identity.
These explanations of race and ethnicity
will infuse a better understanding of race relations and
the need for an equal opportunities’ mechanism to
address grievances based on racism. In this context, the
Guyana Government has now established the Ethnic Relations
Commission.
The
Commission
The responsibility of the Ethnic Relations Commission includes
the following:
1). Promote elimination of racial discrimination and promote
equality of opportunity
2).Uphold equal opportunity among people of differing racial
groups;
3).Encourage good relations between different people of
different racial backgrounds
4).Monitor the way the race relations law is functioning
and make recommendations for its improvements.
Power
of the Commission
The Commission should not be an inspectorate; therefore,
it should not have the power to police racial equality.
However, the Commission should have some power to enforce
the race relations law. Some of these powers should include:
1). provide legal advice and assistance to the people who
think they have been the victims of discrimination. Please
note that the Commission should not rule on whether or not
discrimination has occurred; this ruling will have to be
given by an employer Tribunal or a Court.
·2).The Commission should be able to investigate
companies and organizations where there is evidence of possible
discrimination and instruct them to make changes to their
policies and practices. The Commission should also be able
to take legal action against companies and organizations.
What
Should We Expect From The Commission?
1). For starters, we now have, however dormant, a law outlawing
racial discrimination. The Commission in enforcing this
law must ensure that people are not discriminated against
on the grounds of race, class, nationality, religion, or
ethnicity.
2).Focus should be on direct and indirect discrimination.
Direct discrimination occurs if a person is treated less
well than another person from a different ethnic background
would be in your situation. Indirect racial discrimination
occurs if people from a different racial group cannot meet
a rule or condition that applies equally to all. You will
have to demonstrate that the rule places you or people from
your racial group at a disadvantage. If this rule cannot
be justified, it will be classified as being indirectly
discriminatory.
3). Protection should be afforded against victimization
with regard to a person who brings a complaint of racial
discrimination, or for supporting another person's complaint.
4). The legislation should not cover racial prejudice. The
law should protect racial discrimination but not prejudice.
Prejudice is a prejudged attitude referring to a rigid and
irrational generalization about an entire group of people.
The Commission should focus on people's actions and the
effects of their actions, not their attitudes.
5). Protection to be meted out against racial abuse, harassment
and violence. Race violence is a criminal offence. Race
abuse and harassment should be made illegal if they are
not so already under the civil and criminal law. In cases
where there is incitement to racial hatred, these should
be seen as a violation of the criminal law on public order.
Such an incitement is really a police matter. And should
be so addressed.
6).The law should give the person the right to take his/her
perceived discriminatory case to an employment Tribunal
if it has to do with employment, or to a Court in all other
cases.
7). The Commission should conduct a formal investigation
associated with execution of its duties, where necessary.
Terms of reference for the investigation have to be determined
by the Commission. In a case where the terms of reference
of the investigation only pertain to activities of persons
named in them, then the Commission should (a) inform that
person of their belief and of their proposals to investigate
the acts in question and (b) give that person an opportunity
to provide oral or written presentation.
8). The Commission should require a person to furnish oral
and written information which could include documents in
that person’s possession or control.
9).Information including documents should not be required
by the Commission if such information will not be admissible
in the High Court.
10). The Commission should produce a report of the findings
of any formal investigation conducted.
11). Any information given to the Commission by any person
in relation to a formal investigation should not be disclosed
by that Commission.
As part of further expectations, the Commission
should be greatly involved in preventive work. The Commission’s
work could include efforts to educate and inform the public
and influence policies and practices in all organizations.
The following emphasis on prevention could be effected:
1). Issue codes of practice and racial equality standards.
Codes of practice need to be set up for (a) the elimination
of discrimination in employment, and (b) promoting equality
of opportunity in employment between persons of different
racial groups.
2). Codes of practice should be developed jointly in consultation
with representatives of employers and workers and representatives
from other relevant bodies. These codes must be subject
to revision from time to time.
3). The codes of practice may include guidelines as to what
procedures the Commission feels would be reasonable and
fundamentally fair for employers to introduce to prevent
their employees from doing acts that are unlawful during
their course of employment.
4) Provide advice to all employers on how to prevent discrimination
and promote equality.
5). Provide representations to the Government of the day
on race issues and on racial equality consequences of legislation
policies and practices.
6) Keep the public informed of developments in race relations.
7).Conduct research on the impact and degree of racial and
ethnic discrimination and other race and ethnic issues.
8). Administer public education campaigns to create awareness
of race issues. Groups as ROC can play a major role in this
regard. In attempting to resolve race relations problems,
consciousness-raising has to be the first step.
The Ethnic Relations Commission would more
than likely use this framework appropriately to the benefit
all Guyanese. To date, no serious study of race and ethnic
relations, based on the scientific study, has been administered
in Guyana. Policy formulations on race relations have to
be grounded on reliable and valid data. This Commission
will need a research and a social action component, using
the scientific method. A database on racial discrimination
can evolve through the research process.
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