Amnesty International said that Trinidad and Tobago...

Amnesty International said that Trinidad and Tobago was quietly removing itself from international scrutiny with its withdrawal from the first Optional Protocol to the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. "As a consequence of the withdrawal, international human rights experts will no longer be able to examine the claims of those aggrieved citizens who may have suffered violation of their most fundamental rights," AI said. According to AI the government has taken this retrograde step for what appears to be a mistaken belief that the Optional Protocol was preventing the implementation of capital punishment. "However, as the recent [1999] execution of 10 men in Trinidad and Tobago proved, the first Optional Protocol does not prevent nations from carrying out the death penalty. It seeks to protect the rights of all the citizens, including those under sentence of death," AI said.