Since July 2021, the Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society (JCHS) and seven other Jamaican NGO’s have been communicating with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade (MFA&FT) regarding its deep concerns with certain articles in the pending post-Cotonou Agreement between the Organisation of Africa Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) and the European Union (EU).
Final signing of the Agreement has been subject to multiple delays.
Among the concerns expressed by the Jamaican group is the absence of definitions of key and controversial terms such as ‘human rights’, ‘gender’, and ‘hate speech’. Also concerning is the direct resort to trade sanctions without consultations, as is anticipated for all other articles, if there is non-conformity on two specific articles, Article 9 (human rights) and Article 18 (non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction) in “cases of special urgency”, and where there is “serious and flagrant violation”.
For Article 101 (7), breach of the undefined scope of human rights is treated as akin to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
The Agreement’s silence on the criteria for determining what constitutes “special urgency”, or “serious and flagrant violation” ought to be unsettling for Jamaica as it can expose the country to unilateral action subject to arbitrary interpretation of undefined controversial terms.
According to Reuters news agency, in April 2023, Hungary had lifted its veto on the Agreement based on assurances given by the EU that Hungary’s concerns about the potential imposition of ‘gender ideology’ via the Agreement were assuaged.
Since 2021, the JCHS et al have also requested similar assurances from the MFA&FT that the Agreement would not be used to impose on Jamaica and Jamaicans a ‘gender ideology’ that would crush freedom of speech, conscience, religious liberty, parental rights, or pervert the educational curriculum in Jamaican schools.
In response, the MFA&FT has indicated its commitment to the Agreement in its current form and is confident that Jamaica’s Constitution and Laws are protected from amendment or contravention by the pending Agreement.
Nevertheless, the JCHS has indicated to the MFA&FT that without a clear definition of key terms in the Agreement, especially those that are known to be subject to controversy in the international arena and in operation in the EU policy space, the security of Jamaica’s laws are imperilled. Signing an agreement without knowledge of its true scope is, in effect, signing a binding blind commitment.
The JCHS has requested the Ministry to issue a Declaration on the Agreement, to ensure clarity by all parties that controversial concepts and clauses in the Agreement will not be implemented in the Jamaican context.
