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Human Rights Council – Universal Periodic Review

For use of information media; not an official record

Date:Monday 10 May (Morning)

Country under review: GRENADA

  1. Documents: national report (A/HRC/WG.6/8/GRD/1), compilation of UN information (A/HRC/WG.6/8/GRD/2), summary of stakeholders’ information (A/HRC/WG.6/8/GRD/3)
  2. Troika: Gabon, Qatar, Italy

Concerned country - national report

  1. Represented by a 4-member delegation and headed by Honourable Peter David, Minister for Foreign Affairs
  2. National report presented by the head of delegation

Highlights

  1. Child Protection Act.
  2. Anti-corruption law.
  3. Ombudsman’s functions expanded to address abuse of power by police forces.
  4. Improvement in conditions of detention.
  5. Corporal punishment of children permitted by law, but limited.
  6. Measures taken to combat illiteracy and to ensure compulsory and free primary education.
  7. Improved access to clean water.
  8. HIV/AIDS seen as important challenge.
  9. Housing a priority since hurricane of 2004.

Interactive discussion

Number of States taking part in the discussion

  1. Member States: 17
  2. Observer States: 10

Positive achievements

  1. Domestic Violence Act and awareness-raising actions.
  2. Children Protection Act.
  3. De facto moratorium on death penalty.
  4. First anti-corruption law and Integrity Commission.
  5. Freedom of religion protected by the Constitution.
  6. Efforts to promote education.
  7. Implementation of economic and social rights despite hurricane consequences.

Issues and questions raised

  1. Domestic violence.
  2. Ill-treatment and abuses, including sexual abuses, against children.
  3. Trafficking in persons.
  4. Juvenile justice system and criminal responsibility of 7 years old.
  5. Gender equality.
  6. Infant and maternal mortality.
  7. Conditions of detention.
  8. Criminalization of same sex relations and discrimination against homosexuals.
  9. Vulnerability to and consequences of natural disasters.

Recommendations

  1. Establish a de jure moratorium with a view to abolish the death penalty.
  2. Reinforce efforts to address domestic violence and prevent it. Provide adequate training to police and other officials dealing with violence against women.
  3. Implement a gender policy and take further sensitization actions.
  4. Take further steps to prevent and prosecute abuses against children.
  5. Amend Criminal Code to ensure equal protection from sexual abuses for boys and girls.
  6. Amend Criminal code to criminalize trafficking in persons.
  7. Implement a juvenile justice system. Rise the age of criminal responsibility and provide separate detention facilities for minors.
  8. Prohibit the use of corporal punishment.
  9. Take steps to improve detention conditions and facilities.
  10. Decriminalize same sex activities.
  11. Remove legislation which discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation
  12. Ratify the Convention Against Torture, the Optional Protocols to International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and the Rome Statute.

 Response of the concerned country

  1. Trafficking – No specific law, but laws on kidnapping, abduction, etc. Issue being reviewed and will be addressed.
  2. Death penalty– De facto moratorium. Steps towards abolition under consideration.
  3. Gender equality and domestic violence– On going awareness campaigns. Assistance programmes for victims of violence. 
  4. Prisons and juvenile facilities - Working on the overcrowding problem, but resources constraints. Soon to open a juvenile facility that was already planned but destroyed by hurricane.

Adoption of the report by the UPR working group scheduled on
Wednesday 12 May, 12:00 – 12:30

More information

  1. UPR: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/UPRmain.aspx
  2. Country under review (documents submitted): http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/PAGES/GDSession8.aspx