KINGSTON, Jamaica — Culture Minister Olivia Grange says she will be bringing a motion to Parliament to make clear that all discrimination against people including members of the Rastafari community, based on hairstyle or other modes of cultural and religious expression, is illegal and unconstitutional.

Grange made the disclosure in a statement to the media in which she said she supports the decision by the Court of Appeal which determined that Kensington Primary School in St Catherine had breached the constitutional rights of a female student who was denied access in 2018 after her family refused to trim her dreadlocked hair.

“The decision of the Court of Appeal finally brings closure to the Kensington Primary School issue, I reiterate my call for the wider society to examine its approach to members of the Rastafari community, and I pledge to end discrimination that is manifested in our actions by bringing to Parliament a motion to make all such discrimination illegal, and indeed, unconstitutional,” Grange said.

In July, 2020, the Supreme Court had ruled that the school had not infringed on the constitutional rights of the child because the child’s parents did not identify as Rastafarian, nor did they claim they were raising the child as Rastafarian.

The ruling this week which was delivered by President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Patrick Brooks, did not mention the infringement of religious rights as the Supreme Court had done.

However, instead the Appeal Court found that the child’s right to freedom of expression and the right to equitable treatment by a public authority in the exercise of any function were violated.

In her statement, Grange pointed to her Sectoral Presentation on June 25, 2024, where she specifically referred to a situation where Rastafari students of a primary school had been barred from sitting exams because they had not been vaccinated as required.

Grange noted that she had emphasised that this was a violation of the children’s religious rights, as well as the prevention of students to wear Afrocentric hairstyles in schools.

As the minister with responsibility for Rastafari matters, Grange said she will be leading the advocacy for the setting of clear rules on the matter.

The minister reiterated that there is no room for discrimination of Rasta in the new Jamaica which the Government is determined to build. She said Jamaicans must live together in harmony, respecting each other’s cultural identity and expression.