Byron Buckley, News Editor
A group of Christians gather in prayer before Gordon House yesterday before entering to view a sitting of the parliamentary committee reviewing the Charter of Rights Bill. The group, including representatives of Lawyers' Christian Fellowship, received last-minute permission to make a submission to the committee by March 2. - RUDOLPH BROWN/CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
A CHURCH group yesterday wrung an agreement from legislators to appear before them to raise concerns about the present forms of proposals to amend the Jamaican Constitution.
The church leaders, led by president of the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship, Shirley Richards, has claimed that the proposals contained in the Charter of Rights Bill would, among other things, decriminalise homosexuality.
Yesterday, Senator A.J. Nicholson, chairman of the parliamentary committee reviewing the bill, backed down at the last minute from his previous position and invited the church group into the well of Gordon House to address the committee.
However, on the insistence of Opposition members to grant the church group time to prepare their submission, the committee agreed to receive the submissions by March 2. The committee will discuss them at its next meeting on March 8.
During yesterday's committee meeting, which was witnessed by a packed gallery of representatives of the Christian community, Opposition member Delroy Chuck said he was "disturbed" by charges from the church group that legislators were attempting to curb the rights and freedoms of citizens.
He, along with Government Senator Professor Trevor Munroe, asked the church representatives to address several issues in their impending submission. The issues include the granting of rights to certain groups at the expense of others; and the retention or abolition of privacy rights as provided by the Jamaican Constitution as well as the United Nations charter of human rights.
SPEEDY PREPARATIONS
Senator Munroe was very reluctant to grant the church lobby an extended period of time to make its submission, stressing that currently children remained unprotected, and citizens were subjected to sexual discrimination. Hence the church group had to prepare its submission with expedience. In response, Rev. Al Miller stated that the church group itself was sensitive to the exposure of the rights of citizens and would make the March 2 deadline.
In disagreeing with Munroe, Opposition Senator Anthony Johnson argued that the provision of the UN human rights charter had been contested several times and, therefore, could not be relied on as an infallible guide for drafting human rights laws.
