Prime Minister, the Hon. Philip Davis fielded questions from members of the media while attending a ribbon cutting ceremony at the British Colonial Hotel this week.
Davis was asked about his thoughts on a report compiled by the United Nations on detention in the country. The report covered issues like the treatment of detainees and their access to legal representation. He said, “I’m concerned about it. I didn’t need the UN report to tell me some of the issues we have and we are addressing them as best we can.”
The report also spoke to the arrest of persons without or with expired warrants and the amount of time that they are detained beyond 48 hours without permission of the court. The Prime Minister said, “I’m always concerned about these issues especially as it relates to human rights. This is a legacy issue that has been plaguing our administration of justice, particularly the criminal side of it for quite a long time and we need to address them and we hope to address them.”
Davis added, “we have to understand, the UN has to appreciate that we are a country of limited resources. We have a lot of competing interests that attract our attention for resources. So we are doing what we can within the limits of our resources. And so, we hear them and we understand what they are saying but we also have other responsibilities to discharge and that requires resources and we have to be able to share those resources equitably across the spectrum where the needs are most crucial and urgent.”
The completed report is expected to be present to the United Nations Human Rights Council in September 2024.
