Is T&T’s failure to provide proper school facilities for all a human rights violation?


“The more recent understanding of rights is that they also involve what we call economic, social and cultural rights; namely, the rights to education, to health, to work, the environment and to culture.

“Significantly, we have moved away from the self-imposed limitation that economic, social and cultural rights are merely unenforceable ideals…”

The following column on the responsibilities of the State to its populace was submitted by Professor Rose-Marie Belle Antoine, Dean, Faculty of Law, UWI:

Photo: Students at Belmont Secondary School smile for the cameras during a visit from two-time Olympian Jehue Gordon. (Copyright BBC.co.uk)
Photo: Students at Belmont Secondary School smile for the cameras during a visit from two-time Olympian Jehue Gordon.
(Copyright BBC.co.uk)

I listened and watched with growing alarm and a curious mix of anger and distress, the several parents—flanked by primary school students—bewailing their despair at the lack of school facilities, which translated into the fact that these children are being denied the opportunity, nay the right, to attend school.

Some parents were on their knees crying, hands outstretched, imploring, begging the relevant Minister to have pity on them. Give them a chance and bestow on them, it seems, a great gift—the opportunity to go to school.

No, this was not in some impoverished part of Africa, or India. It was not our neighbour Haiti, often dismissed as voodoo cursed. This was our own dear wanna-be first world status country of Trinidad and Tobago.

Is it only me that is embarrassed and enraged at scenes like these in sweet TnT?

These scenes are little different to those which show us—weekly, or even daily—the trials and tribulations of sick people who do not have adequate access to our publicly funded hospitals; and who, when they are lucky enough to get a bed, cannot get effective drugs, see the doctor and deal with any one of the myriad of problems that plague our health sector.

From all of the various reports, I have heard very little or nothing acknowledging the fact that we are speaking about rights. Yes, indeed, rights, not privileges, or handouts from some benevolent state.

Photo: Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley (right) and Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar SC. (Copyright Stabroek News)
Photo: Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley (right) and Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar SC.
(Copyright Stabroek News)

Such rights invoke legal obligations on the part of the State. Note, I said, the State and not the Government, or any partisan political arrangement. The State is a neutralised concept which goes beyond particular administrations and political timeframes.

Human Rights have long gone past the limitation that the subject of rights only involves what we call civil and political rights—that is, the right to life, to expression, movement, etc. Rather, the more recent understanding of rights is that they also involve what we call economic, social and cultural rights; namely, the rights to education, to health, to work, the environment and to culture.

Significantly, we have moved away from the self-imposed limitation that economic, social and cultural rights are merely unenforceable ideals. Rather, the international community now accepts that these kinds of bread and butter rights are just as vital, and in some ways more directly important, to the central dignity and equality of mankind.

Accordingly, international conventions and protocols have been signed and developed to ensure that they have tangible and concrete meaning. Ultimately, what this means, is that States now have direct legal obligations to promote and protect such rights.

The OAS, for example, has promulgated the San Salvador Protocol, which focusses specifically on making such rights enforceable and specific indicators—on education, health, work etc—have been developed to measure how States perform in this regard. We are part of the OAS community. This complements already existing obligations under the UN and the American Convention.

Photo: A protest at Fanny Government Primary School. (Copyright Trinidad Guardian)
Photo: A protest at Fanny Government Primary School.
(Copyright Trinidad Guardian)

The bottom line is that we can no longer turn a blind eye to the State’s duties to promote, provide and protect rights to education, to health, to work, to culture and to the environment. Notably, this jurisprudence calls on States to “progressively realise” these rights. What this also means is that a State cannot regress or go backward in their provision.

What does this say therefore, about our longstanding commitments to universal education—including tertiary education and universal health care—when we see these dire situations of the marginalised and which indicates that we seem to be going backward?

Rights in the work sphere—to work for adequate wages with earned benefits in decent working conditions—continue to be problematic. Under the rubric of ‘work’, we include rights to social security.

The arrangements that we make or do not make for our citizens when they are laid off, cannot obtain employment or are unable to work, are therefore pertinent here, whether it be unemployment insurance—which I have long advocated—or a simple food card to an unemployed person or the elderly.

Similarly, our casual disregard of ‘ratty’ workplaces and termination benefits that escape all legal obligations, or denying GATE funding to persons above 50.

Photo: Leaders of the All Trinidad General Trade Workers Union protest. (Courtesy ATGTWU)
Photo: Leaders of the All Trinidad General Trade Workers Union protest.
(Courtesy ATGTWU)

We have become so in-sensitised to suffering, so unaware of and cynical about our place in the world that, on the night that the story of the kneeling parents was aired, the people-meter question was whether it was “politically motivated”.

I do not know if it was because the parents seemed to be mainly from one ethnicity, though frankly I have seen others from other ethnicities in the same plight.

In any event, race and ethnicity should not make any difference to our entitlements and rights as citizens of this nation that we say that we want to build. So they should not even be thrown into this mix to cloud the issue.

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About Rose-Marie Belle Antoine

Rose-Marie Belle Antoine is a Dean at the Faculty of Law, UWI, chaired Professor of Labour Law and Offshore Financial Law, and is an award winning author, attorney, activist and international legal consultant, holding a doctorate in law from Oxford University and an LLM from Cambridge. She is a former President of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, OAS, Washington, and has also served on numerous distinguished international bodies.

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14 comments

  1. The education system in Trinidad and Tobago was of world standard in my days and several students excelled by coming in the top ten in the world when we wrote the G.C.E exams. When our students went to universities abroad, they excelle. The students who failed the Common Entrance examinations remained at the primary schools and became monitors and a lot of them eventually became primary school teachers and very good ones at that. Where and when did we lose our way? That’s the question.

  2. So wait,jesso BRAPS ! All the schools break down in 2016 ? Before that,everything was Irie ? And whey the 100 new schools that were built ?.

  3. It may take parents going all the way to the privy council for the state to provide basic education to the nation’s children . A good test piece and a chance for a laywer or group of lawyers to set a precedent.

  4. As a parent of 3 children with autism and the President of the Autism Parents Association of Trinidad & Tobago (APATT) http://www.TTAutism.com We have been strongly advocating for proper and public educational centers for our children (With registered and qualified professionals) Many children on the Autism spectrum in Trinidad & Tobago do not know what a classroom looks like, because the present educational system cannot meet their needs. Private schooling cost between $10,000TT to $22,000TT per term and not all the teachers are qualified, how many parents can afford such exuberant fees? This is the reality for a special needs child in T&T. Children with autism do not become neuro-typical adults, they grow up to be adults with autism. Something NEEDS to be done and URGENTLY.

  5. Not if citizens CHOOSE to go to private schools

  6. If the politicians would concentrate their efforts to the above instead of wasting excessive time and money on elections and devoting that same energy and finance on education, health and improving the lives of the population Trinidad and Tobago will become a better place to live. But I don’t believe that the core values of any politician has anything to do with caring for the population and ensuring a better life for all.

  7. It most certainly is! Excellent piece.

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