Local lawyer tells UN Cayman remains a colony

(CNS): Speaking at the UN Decolonization Committee’s Caribbean Regional Seminar in Saint Kitts this week, local attorney Sophia Harris said that despite the UK’s attempts to have the Cayman Islands removed from the list of non-self-governing territories (NSGT) the islands’ governance system is still that of an administering power to a colony. “The Cayman Islands has not achieved self-determination, but at best, if the current 2009 draft ‘constitution’ is approved by the electorate in a referendum," she said.

Harris continued, "All we will have is a revised administrative document between the UK and a colony, as opposed to a constitutional document of the people and by the people,” she said.

There has been no education or discussion in the Cayman Islands on the options outlined by the UN for achieving self determination, Harris said. “To date the only surveys conducted that vaguely address any of the options available have focused on the question of independence,” she said, adding that they confirmed that there is no support for that.

She describe the UK’s push for constitutional modernization as increasingly murky waters, but what had become very clear from the latest developments was that every Overseas Territory needed the power to draft their own constitution reflecting the wishes of the people of that jurisdiction, a level playing field and she said that the constitutional revision process must be totally open and transparent.

“It would seem that if, at the very least, these parameters are not set then it will be difficult for the people of the Overseas Territory to have a free hand in drafting a constitution of their own making,” Harris said. She went on to say that Cayman had failed to have any kind of meaningful, unfiltered education on all issues of constitutional governance but instead there was a series of what can best be described as public hearings.

She said that the Cayman NGO Working Group for the constitutional reform had asked the government for information on how it came to make the decisions they made in drafting their proposals for the draft Constitution, but had still not received a response.

“The negotiations with the UK started in October 2008 and concluded in February 2009. The government extended an invitation to the opposition to participate in the negotiation, as was a representative from the Chamber of Commerce, a representative from the association of the churches (the Cayman Islands Ministers Association hereinafter ‘CIMA’), the Seventh-Day Adventist Church (as they are not members of CIMA) and a representative from the Human Rights Committee,” she explained, noting that the NGO Working Group was not invited to participate nor were any submissions sought on their behalf.

Despite calls for open negotiations it did not happen on the orders of the UK, and Harris went on to say that in the end, the 2009 Draft Cayman Islands Constitution is still in fact only a revised administrative document. She also criticised the forced inclusion of a Bill of Rights, saying that if it is passed it could prove to be the most costly experiment the Cayman Islands have ever engaged in.

“There were certain issues that were bound to be controversial including the rights of homosexuals and same sex marriages. The Churches and some NGO’s memberships were clear that they could not support a Bill of Rights that did not protect against same sex marriage. The final round of talks held in the UK seemed to have resulted in a battle of wills between the church and the government on one hand and the Human Rights Committee on the other,” she said, adding this spilled out to the public unaware and regretfully uninformed of the subtleties of the language in dispute.

“Of greater concern for the Cayman Islands is that this episode demonstrated the potential for other problematic issues left unexamined and unexposed in the absence of a major and unbiased education campaign,” she said, adding this was contrary to many relevant UN resolutions on the self-determination process.

“This situation lacks the full debate and information that a complete education campaign would bring in the open to truly enable a final constitutional product reflecting the wishes of the people,” Harris added and said the divide over the bill of rights has resulted in an identification of the constitution with the government of the day.

Criticising the fundamental lack of education on constitutional matters, she described the relationship between the UK and the Cayman Islands as mostly dysfunctional.

“Suffice it to say, however, that we continue to have faith that this committee will be able to make progress in achieving the UN objectives and it is hoped the recommendations made herein might be considered,” she said. “In this day and age, in this new century, it is ever increasingly clear that the people of the Overseas Territories must be provided with assistance to accomplish that right of self-determination which, if it is an inalienable right should, nay must, be attainable albeit ever increasingly elusive,” Harris concluded