Jamaica's rights record in the spotlight at Inter-American Comission on Human Rights

Amnesty International says it's not surprised that extra-judicial killings have again increased in Jamaica as research by the organisation has shown no evidence of the police being held accountable by the government.

Louise Tillotson, Caribbean Researcher at Amnesty International, made that assertion on Monday during a submission to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Uruguay.

Recalling a meeting with Jamaica’s last Commissioner of Police, in 2016, she said Amnesty International was “met with flat denials of any police involvement in human rights violations.”

This, she said, “explains why not a single disciplinary proceeding has begun against the police, while INDECOM has recommended that against 138 officers, and it explains why a year after a Commission of Inquiry, published its findings into what took place in Tivoli… the JCF, in an internal review, cleared the police of any wrongdoing.”

Statistics from Jamaica’s Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) show that for the period January to September 2017, police killings increased by 44 per cent, compared with the similar period in 2016.

Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ), a local human rights group, also testified before the Commission, with Rodje Malcolm, a director at JFJ, reporting that detainees are routinely held in outrageously bad conditions, are tortured and beaten while in police lock-up.

“Police lock-ups are quite literally dungeon style inside police stations that were originally meant for short term holding areas, but have morphed into long-term detention environments and the worst incubators for human rights violations, including killings and torture,” he declared.

He added that the country’s pretrial detention system also “systematically violates the rights of detainees to protection from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.”

Immense overcrowding in lock-ups and the denial of basic rights such as access to medical care and use of the bathroom more than once per day, are some of the punitive measures taken against inmates, he reported.

He added that the situation continues unhindered as there is no clear statutory framework for pretrial detention in Jamaica that complies with human rights standards.