Gov’t Moves To Get Rid Of Flogging

The Government is taking steps to remove flogging as a means of punishment from the country’s laws.
Member of Parliament for North East St. Catherine, Gregory Mair, tabled a bill to Repeal the Flogging Regulations Act during the sitting of the House of Representatives on Tuesday (October 19).
According to the memorandum of objects and reasons, which append the bill, as far back as 1976, a flogging committee recommended that all laws relating to flogging and whipping be repealed as legal forms of punishment.
It also said that in 2000 and 2004, the Human Rights Committee established under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights held that flogging and whipping represents “cruel and inhumane punishment.”
Although the Flogging Regulations Act pre-dated the Constitution and was being inconsistent with the fundamental rights stated, the Act had not been repealed because of a savings clause in the Constitution.