Civil society actors have expressed concerns that human rights are under attack in Jamaica and globally.

Former Jamaicans for Justice Executive Director, Carolyn Gomes, who was speaking at the launch of the organisation’s 25th-anniversary reception at the Spanish Court hotel recently, encouraged rights organisations to act in unison to challenge the dangerous intolerance emerging in the world.

According to Gomes, the pushback against rights is a result of both the progress and complacency of the human rights community.

“And the pushback against rights that we’re experiencing now – it’s not all bad. It’s a sign of the success of the human rights community over the past years, since 1948 with the passage of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with a world that was coming out of the human rights abuses of World War II,” said Gomes.

“And we’ve won a lot since then. But the pushback is also a sign of our own complacency. The work is not done, it’s not dusted, and it can shift on a dime. And we sat in our silos; a little bit, we’re the justice group, we’re the climate group, we’re the gender group, where the children’s rights group, we’re the political vote rights people, we’re the economic people – economic justice. And we kind of sat in those little silos and not done the work in those silos,” she added.

Gomes then called on rights organisations to get out of their silos and work collaboratively if they intend to maintain the hard-won gains of advocates and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

“So we’ve got to be coming together, I think, out of our silos, more now than ever, because the principles of solidarity and community and the understanding that rights are interdependent, interlinked and inextricable, one from the other, is what is going to take us to the next phase of this,” said Gomes

“Against a very well-funded, a very good, strategically moving across the world groupage that pushes back hard, anytime anybody achieves something that they think threatens them,” added Gomes.

Similarly, JFJ’s current executive director, Mickel Jackson, agreed that human rights were under attack within Jamaica and globally.

Jackson shared that her organisation would be launching a public education campaign to combat the threat.

“I agree. Human rights are under threat and attack globally, but also within our very country. And I think it is important that the Jamaican public realises this and speaks up and gets involved,” said Jackson.

“We always maintain that a citizen or citizenry, a country that does not know their rights, they will easily give them up. And we hear it daily. I will give up my rights to curb crime. I would give up my rights to ensure that this is done. Not realising that once you give an inch, it is going to be difficult to say to the state not to take that mile. So the importance of rights education is something that we’re going to be doing next year, through town hall meetings. We already have a few planned across the island,” added Jackson.

In addition to unveiling plans for 2024, Jackson also used the occasion to launch JFJ’s ambitious fundraising campaign “25 in 25”; hoping to raise $1 million for every year of the organisation’s existence.

Other speakers at the event held on the day to recognise human rights included Reverend Father Sean Major Campbell, EU Ambassador to Jamaica Marianne Van Steen, Country Director of UNAIDS Dr Richard Amenyah and President of the Jamaica Bar Association Kevin Powell among others.