GENEVA, CMC – The Centre for Civil and Political Rights (CCPR) is calling on Trinidad and Tobago to take all measures necessary, including legislative action, to ensure that the death penalty is only applied to the most serious crimes involving intentional killing.
In addition, the Geneva-based human rights committee is also urging the Trinidad and Tobago authorities to commute all pending death sentences to imprisonment.
The Committee met last month to consider the fifth periodic report of Trinidad and Tobago and, in a statement issued this week, said that while noting Port of Spain’s longstanding de facto moratorium on the death penalty, “the Committee is gravely concerned that courts continue to hand down sentences of death and that the death penalty remains mandatory for murder, leading to a large number of persons on death row.
“In addition, it notes with concern that the State party’s reliance on the death penalty as a deterrent to violent crime has resulted in increased public support for capital punishment. The Committee regrets the State party will not consider abolishing the death penalty or at least establishing an official moratorium until violent crime is under control,” the statement said.
The CCPR said that Trinidad and Tobago should take all measures necessary, including legislative action, to ensure that the death penalty is only applied to the most serious crimes involving intentional killing, is never mandatory, “and should pursue an irrevocable path towards the complete eradication of the death penalty, de facto and de jure.”
The CCPR said that, in particular, Trinidad and Tobago should enhance efforts to change public attitudes about the necessity of maintaining the death penalty, including by engaging in constructive national dialogue about the desirability of abolition, among other things, through appropriate awareness-raising measures.
It also wants Port of Spain to “give due consideration to establishing a de jure moratorium on the death penalty to abolish it and consider acceding to the Second Optional Protocol to the Covenant, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty.”
The CCPR said that it welcomes Trinidad and Tobago’s efforts to improve its correctional services and the conditions in places of detention, including its commitment to develop a therapeutic justice model, providing rehabilitation and reintegration services to further education and vocational standards for prisoners.
“However, the Committee remains concerned about reports of inadequate conditions in detention facilities, in minimal access to medical care, poor sanitation, lousy lighting, insufficient ventilation, and overcrowding, and regrets the lack of information provided by the State party on the official and actual capacities of places of detention.
“Furthermore, it is concerned by the high number of pretrial detainees and remand prisoners deprived of their liberty often detained for prolonged periods.”
The CCPR said Trinidad and Tobago should strengthen its efforts and take the measures necessary to guarantee that, in law and practice, anyone arrested or detained enjoys, from the outset of the deprivation of liberty, all the fundamental legal safeguards enshrined in articles 9 and 14 of the Covenant and that the detention is in full conformity with the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, including about access to counsel and the provision of medical attention when needed.
Trinidad and Tobago should also continue its efforts to reduce overcrowding in detention facilities, including by taking practical steps to curtail delays in the judicial system and through the broader application of non-custodial measures as an alternative to imprisonment, as outlined in the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for Non-custodial Measures.
It must also ensure that pretrial detention is exceptional, imposed only when necessary, and is as short as possible, as well as ensure independent, regular, and unhindered access to all places of deprivation of liberty, including military, immigration, and national security facilities, by independent monitoring and oversight mechanisms, without prior notice and on an unsupervised basis.
On the issue of the elimination of slavery servitude and trafficking in persons, the CCPR said it welcomes the country’s efforts to prevent and combat trafficking in persons, especially within the framework of the National Plan of Action Against Trafficking in Persons 2021-2025. “However, it is concerned about gaps in the identification of victims of trafficking in persons and the low number of investigations, convictions, and sanctioning of perpetrators. “Furthermore, the Committee is concerned about reports that officials, including law enforcement officers, are complicit to trafficking offenses and the sexual exploitation of women.”
The CCPR also wants Trinidad and Tobago to strengthen further its efforts to combat, prevent, eradicate, and punish trafficking in persons by, among other things, improving identification of victims, providing for the effective prosecution and sanctioning of perpetrators of trafficking in persons, with particular attention to public officials, and ensuring that victims receive reparation.
“The State party should also continue and strengthen prevention and awareness-raising campaigns, as well as training aimed at public officials and other persons responsible for investigating and prosecuting these offenses, and should ensure that sufficient financial, technical, and human resources are allocated to all institutions responsible for preventing, combating and punishing trafficking in persons.”
The CCPR said its following constructive dialogue with Trinidad and Tobago will occur in 2031 in Geneva.
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