United States Ambassador to T&T John Estrada has told the Guardian that one of the priority policies of the US government in T&T is the promotion of human rights.
Describing it as a “really, really big” part of America’s coming engagement with T&T on his watch, he zoomed in on women’s rights, domestic and gender-based violence, the rights of people with disabilities and LGBTI rights.
The 60-year old ex-marine, who was born in Laventille and left T&T for the US when he was 14, sat down on Friday with the Guardian at the US embassy for his first, exclusive newspaper interview since taking up his post last month.
He said it wasn’t just the Obama administration policy towards T&T—it was personal.
“That touched me when I was growing up as a kid,” Estrada said.
“I personally witnessed domestic violence to a close family member. As a young kid...I probably was about ten, maybe 12 years old. That stuck with me at that young age, because I remember my brother and I having to try to weigh in.
“I have very strong feelings on it,” said the father of young twin daughters.
The ambassador’s concerns were echoed yesterday in a report out of Geneva, in which the US and the United Kingdom expressed concern about the human rights picture in T&T, particularly police treatment of suspects, discrimination against women and attitude towards homosexuals.
The criticisms are contained in a review exercise of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council (HRC), the “Universal Periodic Review”.
"We are also concerned about violence and discrimination against women, which continues to be a serious problem despite allocation of government resources to combat it, (and) the lack of respect for the human rights of LGBTI persons,” the US assessment read.
But it did give T&T credit for “efforts to improve aspects within the justice sector, like police treatment of suspects, detainees, and prisoners in their custody and security in prisons, while remaining concerned about “reports of police mistreatment and poor prison conditions.”
The UK gave the Government credit for taking steps to improve women’s rights, but called for "concrete steps to implement existing legislation on sexual harassment and violence against women.”
In tomorrow’s Guardian read more on Orin Gordon’s exclusive interview with Estrada, on America’s priorities for T&T