Maybe before the UK piles blindly into this ‘tax haven’ they could sort out another one that’s a real human rights shithole, i.e. the Cayman Islands.
Over here a few gorillas like Houghton still hold us back, but over there…..!
During general elections on May 20th Cayman voters are being asked to approve a new draft constitution (heavily influenced by religious throwbacks) which will send the place back to the dark ages.
In the Organization of American States (OAS), all member governments adopted a resolution in 2008 expressing concern over acts of violence and human rights violations committed against individuals because of their sexual orientation and gender identity. All Caribbean states surrounding the Cayman Islands are signatories to the OAS resolution, but it seems a few superstitious flat-earthers with the ear of government is all it takes to ensure the Caymans won’t.
Hmm, that sounds familiar. Thankfully the worst offenders over here are too busy staving off Alzheimers these days to do much damage.
Equality Cayman, a nongovernmental organization in the Cayman Islands, has strongly criticized section 16 in the draft constitution, stating that it offers inadequate protections against prejudice and inequality, and Human Rights Watch have written to the Cayman’s Governor, Stuart Jack, and UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband stressing that urgent action is needed.
In a recent press release HRW say:
The draft constitution is being revised by the Cayman Islands government and will eliminate a free-standing guarantee of equality before the law and limit anti-discrimination protections only to rights expressly included in the constitution. This means that large and critically important areas of daily life would not be covered, including access to jobs, housing, and medical treatment. Reportedly, the government succumbed to pressure from religious groups, and the action was apparently intended to deny protections to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.
HRW has urged the British and Cayman governments to ensure that protections in the new constitution apply not only to discrimination by the state, but also to discrimination by private entities – i.e. faith organisations who base their morality on bronze age values because they haven’t evolved yet.
Let’s watch this one closely, because if the Brits don’t sort out the Cayman spookchasers ours will jump on the bandwagon.
It already irritates me that when ‘faith-based’ knuckledraggers use opt-outs based on UK laws that don’t even exist here to deny employment or services the Attorney General’s office hasn’t spoken up. Similarly, even the world’s most taste-deficient transexual shouldn’t need ANYTHING as sad as a Manx church wedding, but they should have the choice.
10 years ago
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