Race and Ethnic Relations

Attorney General Anil Nandlall has indicated that utterances by opposition lawmaker, Amanza Walton-Desir violate Guyana’s laws. “Racial discrimination is a wrong. It is an illegal act. It is outlawed by the most Supreme Law of our country,” he said. Mr. Nandlall said Guyana’s Constitution protects citizens against racial discrimination. “Racial discrimination is something that the constitution protects Guyanese from as ...

Opposition APNU+AFC parliamentarian Amanza Walton-Desir said she told police that she feared City businessman Roshan Khan’s call for her to be “marked” because she said the support-base of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) was “mentally lazy people.” But Mr. Khan later appeared on YouTube, defending his call for her to be “marked”, saying he was merely urging Indo-Guyanese to ignore ...

The Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) has taken three persons to court for allegedly inciting racial hatred or hostility among Guyanese, and one of them has since pleaded guilty, the commission said Thursday. “Based on the specific nature of their conduct and words, the charges against the defendants included causing ethnic/racial violence or hatred and exciting hostility or ill-will on the ...

The Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) on Wednesday launched a colouring book to help promote racial and ethnic harmony across Guyana, and already that constitutional body intends to get copies into the schools through the Ministry of Education. Titled “Harmony Colouring Book – Colour our History and Heroes” , the  26-page publication, which was authored by Commissioner Barrington Braithwaite , features ...

President Irfaan Ali on Thursday  said he boycotted this week’s first-ever National Conversation because the government was not involved in planning the event and selecting the panelists, concerns about decision-making and silence by that constitutional body about the five-month long political crisis over the elections. “Every single stakeholder in Guyana agrees that democracy was under threat but the ERC did ...

Political Scientists Dr. Henry Jeffrey and David Hinds on Tuesday said the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) has failed to resolve racial and ethnic problems in Guyana because politicians are pushing race as a means of getting power, but a top official of the International Decade of People of African Descent-Guyana (IDPADA-G) tabled several recommendations for that constitutional body. Speaking on ...

Attorney-at-Law, Nigel Hughes on Monday cited the need for scientific evidence about racial discrimination and economic disempowerment, to a meaningful National Conversation on Race and Ethnic Relations. Speaking during day-1 of the  two-day virtual event, Mr. Hughes said was needed to back-up certain statements in areas such as wealth and income distribution based on race. He said such data would ...

As Guyana observes Eid-ul-Adha today (Friday) Guyanese leaders, political and religious organizations have all come together to call for greater unity, peace and togetherness among Guyanese, especially in light of the tense political situation. President David Granger has called for greater harmony among all Guyanese. “I pray that the outpouring of charity and concern for others, which is characteristic of Eid-ul-Adha, will ...

By GHK Lall As I note the campaign emphases of the two major political parties in this elections season, there is one significant and startling difference from the ones that went before. Neither the PNC nor the PPP is going near to it or mentioning it and, from all appearances, both are distancing themselves from it. That is, other than ...

The Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) on Monday said the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) did not provide information to prove whether elections commissioner Robeson Benn’s claim that more than 90 percent of the workers there are Afro-Guyanese. The ERC also said Benn, who had first raised the issue and had triggered a complaint by his People’s Progressive Party (PPP) did not ...