Funding a concern as Guyana considers UN review recommendations

Feb 07, 2015 News

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ms Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett

“In a way one can consider that you are a victim of your own success,” was how Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, classified Guyana’s recognized elevation from a poor to middle income country. This graduation, according to her, will in fact translate to this South American territory having to plug more funds into its health sector to cater to the procurement of necessities such as vaccines. Because Guyana, like a number of other countries, has achieved the middle income status it will no longer be eligible for concessionary financing for vaccines, the Minister has intimated, insisting that “this is a reality that we face.”
The Minister’s disclosure was forthcoming as she hosted a press briefing in her Ministry’s main conference room on Wednesday that dealt with Guyana’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Report. She, during that forum said that some of the recommendations that were forthcoming at the UPR session in Geneva, Switzerland, included increasing the age of criminal responsibility.
There were also recommendations to put in place national legislation in line with international standards as it relates to decriminalising defamation and developing self regulatory mechanisms of the media and adopting a plan of action on Indigenous people.
But according to the Minister many of the recommendations made in Geneva “have deep cultural and societal considerations and will require wide spread consultations before reaching a conclusion that will find favour with the majority of persons in society…”
Indeed the majority of Parliamentarians will also have to be engaged since they will have to help facilitate the amendment of laws in order for the recommendations to be realized. “This is the approach that the Government of Guyana will continue to take on these issues,” said Rodrigues-Birkett as she again pointed to the issue of finances. “While we have been increasing the budget to the social sector we found it necessary to indicate to the UPR working group and the member states present that we believe that the means of implementation for the sustainable development goals which are being finalised right now must be very clear to assist small states like Guyana,” said the Minister.
Moreover, she noted that the graduation issue (Guyana moving from a poor to middle income country) was raised at the Geneva forum.
Nevertheless, the Minister insisted that the improvement of the lives of citizens, their human rights and their overall wellbeing will continue to be the focus of the Government of Guyana.
It was for this reason that Rodrigues-Birkett said that Guyana opted to accept the majority of the 143 recommendations that were forthcoming in Geneva. “They represent what we are doing (or) what we have planned to do and the UPR process will therefore continue to be a very important aspect of the Human Rights mechanisms to which Guyana subscribes fully,” said the Foreign Affairs Minister.
The UPR is a unique process created by a resolution of the United Nations (UN) under the auspices of the Human Rights Council. It moreover, involves a review of the Human Rights records of the 193 member countries of the UN.
Since the process is State driven, Rodrigues-Birkett pointed out, that it allows member countries to indicate what measures have been taken with respect to Human Rights in order to fulfill their Human Rights obligations.
Three documents were used to facilitate Guyana’s Review including: The National Report (which is prepared by the State); information contained in Reports from experts and groups, Human Rights Treaty bodies and other UN entities; and information from other stakeholders including National Human Rights institutions and Non-Governmental Organisations. All such documents were posted online.
As one of the 54 countries under review, Guyana, represented by Rodrigues-Birkett was required to respond to a number of questions about the country’s human rights state of affairs and she also provided an update regarding what measures have been taken since Guyana presented its first report in 2010.

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