You are on page 1of 3

Trinidad and Tobagos voluntary commitments and undertakings before the United Nations Human Rights Council at Universal

Periodic Review. (Source: United Nations General Assembly Documents A-HRC-19/7 & A/HRC/19/7/Add.1 continue to work purposively on human rights issues and maintain a high level of ambition in meeting its obligations under various international treaties and further strengthen the national framework for the promotion and protection of human rights, with full commitment to furthering its efforts to address any identifiable gaps in implementation be seen as a leader in the region in relation to the manner in which it addresses the changing needs of its population fulfil its international reporting obligations, and give consideration in the future to invitations to Human Rights Special Procedures and seeking technical expertise via the Special Procedure Mechanism of the Human Rights Council review the process of a National Human Rights Institution being accredited under the Paris Principles address the social aspect of human rights promotion and protection, develop a nationwide human rights awareness campaign to reach the widest demographic, and include human rights education and training among its educational programmes intensify efforts to combat practices and beliefs that undermine human rights, including the rights of women and children be resolute that every creed, race and gender find an equal place in modern Trinidad and Tobago raise peoples standard of living by enhancing the educational system further efforts aimed at combating extreme poverty, and intensify programs to combat crime and extreme poverty continue applying the countrys strategies and socioeconomic development plans in order to advance towards the materialization of the MDGs, a undertake new initiatives to protect the rights of persons with disabilities, with an ultimate view to ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, provide greater accessibility and support to differently abled persons and adopt and strengthen policies to promote their better integration into society while preserving their independence and dignity, make available fully-funded home care and assistance from health care professionals, allocate adequate resources to strengthen services for children with disabilities, support their families, train professionals in the field and encourage and make special provision for the inclusion of children with disabilities into the regular educational system and their integration into society improve the welfare of people with HIV, contribute to ongoing national efforts to decrease the spread of HIV and mitigate its impact, and set standards for managing HIV in the workplace and promoting structures and programmes to reduce discrimination add age and HIV to the Equal Opportunity Act recognise the human rights of all citizens, which includes the LGBT community, undertake proactive policies to promote the rights of individuals, especially with regard to their sexual orientation and HIV/AIDS status, increase measures to ensure that violence and discrimination against members of vulnerable groups, such as women and lesbians, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons, are both prevented and prosecuted, maintain the issue of discrimination based on sexual orientation as a matter of concern in the forefront of the minds of the government which will not be ignored, and recognise the

need for a definitive debate on and resolve issues related to the treatment of same sex couples guarantee, in relation to incidents of violence against a member of the LGBT community, exercise of the rights to life, liberty and security of the person, equality before and protection of the law and respect for private and family life, free from discrimination based on race, origin, colour or sex, and protect victims of violent same sex activity by defining rape to reflect a gender neutral position with regard to the complainant and the victim make reduction of violent crime a top priority, and exercise the full authority of the law and all means at its command to eradicate the scourge of violence (while ensuring respect for human rights and safeguarding the constitutional freedoms and rights and civil liberties of the citizenry) focus specifically on transnational and financial crime and protect citizens from technology related crimes afford protection to electronically stored personal data put in place mechanisms to avoid, and investigate allegations of, human rights violations and abuses by public security officials, reinforce the capacity to sanction those responsible and avoid impunity, and curb the use of unnecessary force by the police improve the overall quality of policing, improve the quality of training received at the Police Academy, change the culture in which police officers interact with the public by reforming the behaviour of police officers, bring about a closer alliance between the police service and the public, and take the necessary steps to ensure police and security forces operate with greater respect for human rights, such as including comprehensive human rights and rule-of-law components in training for security forces, and training for middle ranks on the relationship between human rights and policing vigorously address the case backlog, bottlenecks and inefficiencies in the judicial system, particularly in relation to lengthy pretrial detention, which also exacerbate difficult prison conditions protect and promote the rights of prisoners, continue the process of penal reform, and implement reforms towards a system of restorative justice, take prompt, appropriate, efficient measures towards the improvement of the living conditions and standards in prisons and detention centres, including the inmates access to food, medical care and social services, and ensure relationships between incarcerated parents and their children re maintained protect the human rights of victims of human trafficking, illegal immigrants, undocumented workers, asylum-seekers and refugee claimants, enact draft human trafficking legislation to improve prosecution of trafficking offenders and protections for victims of forced labour and sex trafficking, strengthen activities and programs to focus on human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation, endeavour to sustain the maximum humane care for illegal immigrants and assist them to utilize, on a timely basis, the prevailing legal system in the country to address their situation, develop a national policy on refugees and asylum seekers and a policy and national programme which seeks to ensure the migrant population has proper and easy access to HIV treatment, engage with the rights of migrant workers and attention to the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, and give consideration to acceding to the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness do more to achieve gender equality, equity and sensitivity throughout the society, and to protect women from domestic violence, sexual harassment and other forms of emotional and verbal abuse including harmonising national legislation with CEDAW, explicit prohibition of discrimination against women, an inventory to ensure that the national legislative framework does not allow for direct or indirect discrimination, other legislation and policy measures, reinforcing womens rights within the labour market, promoting equality, participation and empowerment of women in public policy-making and decision-

taking, adoption of measures so that traditional stereotypes referring to the roles of men and women in society and family can be overcome, recognition of the specific issue of a gender pay gap, an enhanced gender responsive methodology to national development planning, a gender-responsive budget with a gender-sensitive formula for the allocation of financial resources in the budget, funding allocated to all ministries and sectors as a fundamental step to the achievement of gender equality, and finalization and implementation of the Draft National Gender Policy address, as a matter of urgency, the reportedly widespread violence against women, place high priority on measures aimed at combating violence against women in the family and in society, increase the populations awareness about violence against women, maintain efforts in favour of prevention, punishment and eradication of all forms of violence against women, strengthen legislation aimed at the elimination of gender based violence and efforts to effectively implement legislation in force, including through campaigns that counter deeply rooted traditional patriarchal attitudes and stereotypes, rejection in society, and that increase protection for victims undertake more effective measures to address the problems of sexual abuse and violence against women and girls, including strengthening law enforcement and the judicial system, strengthen activities and programs to focus on sexual violence, undertake intensive media and education programmes aimed at increasing public awareness and sensitivity on rights, train police to provide improved investigation and prosecution services to women subjected to violence including rape, and make resources available to improve access to shelters, strengthen support programs aimed at the elimination of sexual violence, incest and prostitution as a form of exploitation introduce further measures to raise public awareness about violence against women and children regard protection of the human rights of children as an extremely serious matter, establish programmes, grants and activities geared towards child development, continue to develop and implement measures aimed at protecting the rights of all children, particularly those in vulnerable situations, step up measures to curb the incidence of drug and alcohol abuse by children, including through intensive public education awareness campaigns, take practical steps to reverse the traditional practice of corporal punishment, including piloting another approach to managing school discipline, and address the sale of children, child pornography, and child prostitution address the human rights issue of raising and unifying the age of consent to marriage in Trinidad and Tobagos various Marriage Acts, as well as making said age of consent the same for males and females to bring domestic legislation in line with international standards provide for a separation of juvenile offenders from adult inmates, establish a modern juvenile justice system to consolidate the protection of the rights of children, and ensure life imprisonment sentences cease to be administered to minors and juveniles continue and strengthen current efforts to increase the accessibility and quality of health services and education for all its citizens, further action to reduce maternal mortality, adopt and implement the Draft National Community Care Policy to ensure health and social support serves to older persons in the community, and continue action in order to ensure the full exercise of human rights by the senior citizens of the country consider technical assistance in the provision of education infrastructure and in ICT development, continue to implement its policies and programmes aimed at promoting universal education and developing a knowledge-based society for long-term sustainable development, and finalize reforms of the educational system, notably by establishing mandatory schooling for children between 6 and 15 years of age recognise the distinct link between global climate change and human rights

You might also like