Thank goodness the IACHR commissioners breathed some clean oxygen into this suffocating theater of nonsense - https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=92…

http://tribune242.com/users/photos/2015…

Thank goodness the IACHR commissioners breathed some clean oxygen into this suffocating theater of nonsense - https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=92…

ispeakthetruth - I am glad you brought up the issue of policy vs law. The commissioners did as well, as I am sure you saw. Their position is clearly that only in the Bahamas can constitutional rights be infringed because of "policy". Everywhere else, minister's actions are governed by LAW and policy is only the manner in which it is carried out, within the framework of said law. I have a feeling we will be hearing more from the commission about the way "policy" is used in the Bahamas to let ministers act outside the law.

Its not about the rights or wrongs of it, - the commission will clearly take any evidence presented to them of hostility against Smith and his crew, as evidence that human rights defenders are under threat in the Bahamas. Therefore, the Bahamas will become one of those places on the list of "questionable" countries. Again whether its true or not is irrelevant; you have to understand your audience. As Mitchell said in his presentation to the OAS "reputation is everything." We have to learn to think strategically in these situations, and stop being so childish.

The commission clearly said - even chastising Gomez - that the state has more than a responsibility to prosecute those who attack human rights defenders; they have a responsibility to prevent those attacks, verbal, physical or written.

@Cas0072 - as the commissioners clearly said, it was not a referendum on the consistency of Fred Smith's statements. They have their OWN independent concerns about what has been happening in this country. Those include: that detention must be the last resort, that immigrants must be given due process, the presumption of innocence and hence their day in court; that undocumented migration should NEVER be criminalized, that children should NEVER be detained, under any circumstances, and many more. Surely you heard this for yourself. This has nothing to do with Fred Smith; stop trying to deflect by shooting the messenger. Our current immigration policy violates both local and international law and needs to be sent to the scrap heap.

Hahahah - generalcrazy and birdie, y'all don't realize that y'all are just making the GBHRA's case for them? You think a single hateful sentence you write will not become part of a dossier put together by the activist and submitted to the INCHR, the UN the US State Department, the Senate, caricom and whoever else they met with and sensitized to their plight? They will add your words to all the threats uttered by government lackeys and make a case for why we are a country that targets and harasses those who speak out. We will end up begging for tourists to full up Atlantis and Baha Mar. Your words will condemn the government you so desperately seek to protect. Y'all work for Fred Smith hey? :P

Mitchell will now have to stop this. The commission made it clear that the government must stop attacking, and encouraging attacks, against human rights defenders. They did so sternly and repeatedly. How will Mitchell deal with them now?

And Girly, I must say, you spoke earlier about Smith and his crew looking silly and sheepish - what looked sillier than the minister's phone ringing off with some dumb song and his entourage fumbling to silence it? I mean, really. We have to show up and look third world? And we worrying about the activists making us look bad....

Fred Smith was in the right from the get-go. That is becoming increasingly clear.