Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ) has called for senators to reject the request for an extension of the states of emergency (SOE), arguing that the measure is unconstitutional.

The Government is seeking to have the SOEs it declared for seven parishes on November 15 extended until January 14, 2023. It used its super majority in the House of Representatives on Tuesday to approve the motion but needs the support of one Opposition senator to achieve the two-thirds requirement in the upper chamber.

The SOEs are set to expire on November 28 if the motion doesn’t receive two-thirds support from both Houses.

However, in a release urging senators to reject the extension, the JFJ said “parliamentarians have a duty to uphold and safeguard the constitution”, and that “political expediency is no justification for constitutional breaches.”

The JFJ said “… the reasons given by government simply do not meet constitutional threshold for a state of emergency to be declared. Government must be held accountable to implement lawful and constitutional means of addressing crime.

“We must reject the deflection of using (SOEs) in lieu of the government’s failure to provide the people of Jamaica with a comprehensive strategy to fight crime. We must reject the approach that government must break the law to uphold it,” JFJ said.

The human rights group also called the SOEs “an expensive misadventure” that diverts well-needed funds “that could have otherwise been used to improve the police’s investigative capacity to solve crime, save lives and secure convictions.

“It is an unsustainable tactic that does not provide any real inroads to curb crime, serving to allow criminals to migrate to other locations,” the JFJ said.

It added that, “Far too often the powerful and the privileged do not understand and appreciate the infringement on the rights of the powerless. We cannot sacrifice the poor and marginalised in our fight against crime.”

On Thursday, a number of private sector groups urged the Opposition to support the extension of the SOEs, arguing that there has been a significant decline in murders nationally since the declaration of the SOEs on November 15.

The Opposition has repeatedly asserted that the SOEs as used by the government is unconstitutional and has argued that the security forces have other available crime-fighting tools to tame the crime monster.