Human rights activist Felicia Dujon has questioned the handling of the findings of the probe into whether the administering of the controversial Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) survey to hundreds of schoolchildren in October broke any data protection laws.She contended in an interview with Barbados TODAY that the Data Protection Department which conducted the probe should not have forwarded the report to the Ministry of Education which took ultimate responsibility for the minors being subjected to the offending questionnaire without parental consent.“Who is the one that’s going to be responsible for whatever [action is taken] unless the report says no harm has been done or no kind of breaches have been done?” questioned Dujon, who is leading efforts by a group of parents to sue the Government over the survey.
Laws are repealed by the Parliament of Barbados, not by the law courts.So says law lecturer at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Nicole Foster, who said while the court had the authority to strike down legislation, it had none to repeal it.Her comments have come following the recent, historic decision handed down by Justice Michelle Weekes in which she declared void Sections 9 and 12, Chapter 154, of the Sexual Offences Act.The ruling, if left unchallenged, means that the offence of buggery would no longer be illegal.Speaking to Barbados TODAY, Foster said while her area of expertise was international law and not local law, the Supreme Court of Barbados did not have the power to repeal any legislation.
A group of parents is pressing ahead with legal action against the Government and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) over the controversial IDB-administered survey that collected sensitive information from hundreds of secondary school students without parental consent.Human and gender rights activist Felicia Dujon, who is leading the challenge, disclosed on Friday that her team has secured the services of a senior attorney who is working on the matter.Reporting that many parents have come forward seeking representation, Dujon declared there would be no turning back from their position that the Government and IDB should pay for breaches of the rights of parents/guardians.“We are not silent, we are working in the background, but you can indicate that it is currently a legal matter…,” she said in an interview with Barbados TODAY.
A human rights and gender rights advocate has called on Neil Rowe to do the “ethical” thing and step down as Member of Parliament for St Michael North West.Felicia Dujon has contended that the rape charge he faces leaves him unable to efficiently represent his constituents.“This is a very serious crime [he is accused of] . . . . so the ethical thing for him to do is to deal with his personal matter. Whatever time he needs he has to do that, but you can’t be standing up in Parliament or you can’t be serving people knowing that you have those grievous charges on your head,” she said in an interview with Barbados TODAY, adding that mothers and young women in Rowe’s constituency may not be comfortable speaking with him now.“This is a matter where you want to build back the public confidence in people. People are shocked by this allegation…and the mere fact that those serious allegations have been made against him places him in a condition where some people would have lost