Dear Editor,

Anyone who has heard the parliamentary testimony of Public Defender Arlene Harrison-Henry in regard to the state of affairs regarding State of Emergency (SOE) detainees, held in lock-ups, cannot help but be appalled at the level of disregard for basic human rights by the Jamaican State.

The conditions of the lock-ups, particularly those at the Freeport Police Station in Montego Bay, as revealed by Harrison-Henry, has laid bare the failure of the Jamaican government to uphold the human rights of its citizens as required by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and to which Jamaica is a signatory.

She highlighted over-crowded cells, lack of proper sanitation leading to the spread of gastrointestinal diseases, poor nutrition, uncovered food intended for detainees kept in the direct proximity to garbage, lack of hand-washing facilities, and proper lighting, scabies, rashes, respiratory illnesses, non-functioning toilets, inadequate ventilation, among other health hazards. These unsanitary conditions have also been reported on by the Ministry of Health which carried out its own investigation of the conditions of the lock-ups.

Then, there are the children in the lock-ups, 105 according to the count of the Public Defender, which she notes is a moving number. One can only hope that they are being held in better conditions than the adult detainees.

With some three per cent of the detainees charged up to the 9

^th

 of October, the rationale for continuing to detain people under such deplorable conditions does not hold sway. The discriminatory deprivation of the liberty of these people, particularly young men between the ages of 18 and 25, and the lack of proper data regarding the detentions is, as Harrison-Henry pointed out, in breach of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms.

The state of our lock-ups has been known to us prior to the SOE and yet there was nothing done to improve them before the influx of people one would have expected into these facilities with the declaration of emergency powers granted to the security forces.

These squalor conditions in which detainees are being held must be addressed as a matter of urgency by no less than the prime minister himself.

The SOE and the emergency powers granted to the security forces have been done under the auspices of the prime minister and as such the overall responsibility for the conduct and conditions of the SOE rests with him. The fact that these conditions have been revealed just 18 days before the celebration of International Human Rights Day on December 10 makes the call to act even more urgent. We cannot turn a blind eye to what has been laid bare before us. The public defender has done her job, it now time for us to do ours.

 Carla Gullotta