Trinidad and Tobago is a British Independent Territory...

Trinidad and Tobago is a British Independent Territory for which the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council remains the last court of appeal. On May 26, 1998, the Trinidad and Tobago Government withdrew from the first Optional Protocol to the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights with effect from 26 August 1998. This protocol enables individuals who believe their rights under the covenant are being violated to petition the UN Human Rights Committee. On the same day the Government re-acceded to it - subject to a reservation to exclude any communication "relating to any prisoner who is under sentence of death in respect of any matter relating to his prosecution, detention, trial, conviction, sentence or the carrying out of the death sentence on him and any matter connected therewith". On January 26, 1999, the Privy Council ruled on constitutional motions brought by Darrin Roger Thomas and Haniff Hilaire, who were both under sentence of death in Trinidad and Tobago, stating "that to carry out the death sentences imposed on the men before the final disposal of their respective applications to the Inter-American Commission and Court on Human Rights would be a breach of their constitutional rights." On 26 May, 1999, Trinidad and Tobago also withdrew from the American Convention on Human Rights, thereby precluding the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights from considering whether Trinidad and Tobago had violated provisions of the American Convention and from referring cases to the Inter-American Court on Human Rights. This action also weakened human rights protection. The Government's justification for such a draconian and unprecedented measure was to avoid delays in carrying out the death penalty, due partly to the time taken to consider communications under the protocol from representations of prisoners on death row. Nevertheless, an application was submitted on behalf of one death row inmate, Rawle Kennedy, who complained that the Government had breached his rights. The UN Human Rights Committee was asked to declare the reservation inconsistent with the object and purpose of the protocol and to consider his claims. The Trinidad Government argued that the committee was not competent to consider the complaint. It added that the fact it had granted the applicant "interim measures" was void. On December 31, 1999, the Committee published its decision. It insisted that it was part of its role to interpret and determine the validity of reservations and rejected Trinidad's submissions. Crucially, the majority of the committee went on to reject Trinidad's reservation, stating that it could not accept a reservation that "singles out a certain group of individuals for lesser procedural protection than that which is enjoyed by the rest of the population". The committee therefore held that it could look at Kennedy's application.