News from the Cayman Islands for
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Letter: Bill of Rights must be expedited
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| Published on Thursday, September 17, 2009 | Email To Friend Print Version
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Dear Sir,
The entire story that has held Cayman’s public enthralled, and I dare say, hostage, for the last two years has now finally been told in the just concluded trial of Lyndon Martin.
Readers may go back and revisit all the comments that have been published under my name to see the true position and nature of this entire episode laid out long before it has reached this conclusion. That Mr Martin would have been eventually exonerated by a fair jury was a no-brainer.
I will repeat and condense what I’ve already named as the true problem that caused this entire scandal to take place.
The lack of a human rights code and legislation that reflects the Human Rights Act 1998 to whatever degree that is appropriate for the Cayman Islands, is what has led to this disgraceful and expensive exercise.
When the new Constitution is finally approved, a damage-control operation should be immediately implemented by the current government by expediting the three year period for the Bill of Rights to come into effect and begin to draft the proper legislation immediately.
This will go a long way in repairing the damage to the international image of the Cayman Islands that this episode has caused.
The issue at stake here was always improper conduct by certain senior police personnel, both British and local, that under British law at home in the UK would have been deemed highly illegal and the charges brought against them much more serious than ‘misconduct in a public office’.
Under Cayman law, all parties involved had to be eventually exonerated because there are no proper laws as yet under which to have investigated, prosecuted, or convicted any public official who might have been involved.
For the sake of seeing that these events do not ever repeat themselves, the Cayman Islands government needs to look at drafting the necessary human rights legislation as soon as possible, and assist the new Commissioner of Police in his job of rebuilding the police force, but also making sure that the RCIPS is operating within the laws that all British police forces are expected to abide by.
The Commissioner is already showing a determination to do this, and the country as a whole needs to change its culture in regards to how they will expect and accept their police to execute their professional duties as public servants; not public masters.
Ricardo Tatum | | | | Reads : 599 |
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