Human Rights lawyers urge Govt to act on US report
Immigration/human rights attorney Nafeesa Mohammed and human rights/criminal attorney Criston J Williams say they are not surprised by the contents of the latest US State Department’s Human Rights Practices Report on T&T.
While Williams blames bad legal advice as the root cause for the many shortcomings raised in the report, Mohammed says it is time for T&T to adopt international standards to deal with migrant and human rights issues.
The report, which was released on Monday, highlights significant human rights issues here in T&T, including credible reports of unlawful or arbitrary killings by police, non-refoulement of asylum seekers, serious acts of corruption and trafficking in persons.
Speaking on the report, Williams said, “I would say, Mr Attorney General, you should probably very humbly excuse yourself from the room so that we could have a frank conversation with the Prime Minister because the evidence is that he has been and is being wrongly advised, or you probably put in his place the Minister of National Security because national security so far, they have been very straightforward with the Parliament.”
Read the full report here. TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO 2020 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT (state.gov)
