-GHRA Co-president

Since their establishment some eight years ago, the constitutional rights commissions have made no serious impact on the quality of life in the sectors they were supposed to defend and promote, according to Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) Co-President Mike McCormack, who says Parliament should evaluate their success instead of moving to renew them.

“Their statutory life is over. Whether they still continue to function, they don’t impact on public life to any great extent, certainly not in any systematic way,” McCormack told Stabroek News.

“None of the commissions has pursued or promoted their concerns in a rightsbased framework though they make reference to rights. They began operating like non-governmental organisations seeking funding for their projects,” he added.

The country’s constitution provides for the establishment of five commissions for three-year terms. The majority of the commissions established have been criticised for being non-functioning or not being legally constituted at present.

On July 30th this year, Chairman of the Committee of Appointments Dr George Norton, who is also Social Cohesion Minister, withdrew a motion in the Parliament to approve the appointment of members of the Rights of the Child Commission (RCC) after Opposition Member of Parliament (MP) Juan Edghill said the motion would require a two-thirds majority vote and the opposition was not prepared to support it without consensus.

More recently, on the order paper is the scheduled debate of the motion for the appointment of members of the Indigenous Peoples’ Commission (IPC). This motion had been recurring on the order paper for some months before the parliamentary recess.

Norton told this newspaper that the expired commissions have been meeting because they have been receiving subventions from the state and they have been continuing the work they have begun even though they have not been reappointed.

“We have to get the commissions up to date,” he said. The Committee of Appointments is due to meet fortnightly but in recent times, he said, the Opposition MPs have not been attending the meetings, which is stymieing the work of the committee. “Yet, we are blamed for feet dragging,” he lamented.

In response, Edghill said Norton was being dishonest by blaming the opposition. “He is either manifesting his incompetence or he has a slip that he is slavishly reading,” he said.

To be debated in the Parliament, Edghill said, are the two motions for the appointment of members to the RCC and