[IntLawProfessors] FW: Shadow Report on unlawful police killings and excessive use of force in Jamaica

[Don Anton]

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From: Cesare Romano <romanoc at lls.edu>
Sent: Saturday, August 9, 2014 4:05 AM

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Dear colleagues,

The International Human Rights Clinic of the Loyola Law School Los
Angeles and Jamaicans for Justice have prepared a shadow report on
Jamaica that will be submitted to the UN Human Rights Council on the
occasion of Jamaica’s Universal Periodic Review. We are seeking
endorsements from organizations and experts.

As you might have heard, a well-documented pattern of unlawful police
killings and excessive use of force has existed in Jamaica since the
early 1970s. Jamaica has averaged 200 fatal police shootings per year
since 1998, and since Jamaica’s 2010 UPR, security forces have continued
to kill an average of 230 civilians per year — an alarmingly high number
for an island with only 2.6 million residents, making Jamaica’s security
forces amongst the deadliest in the world. Many of these deaths occur
despite the victims posing no danger to police. Officers frequently
report that victims were killed in shoot-outs — even when the officers
themselves did not sustain injuries; the victim was unarmed according to
witnesses; and/or the victims’ injuries were inflicted from the back
instead of the front.Yet, between 1999 and 2013, only four police
officers were convicted of murder. This near-complete impunity has led
to the perception in Jamaica that the police are above the law. In
Jamaica, each stage of the judicial process is plagued with
irregularities, deficiencies, and delays that deprive victims and their
families of justice and reinforce police impunity.

Our shadow report contains several precise and well-thought
recommendations to help the government of Jamaica address this troubling
issue. We hope you will want to add your voice to our plea.

If you are interested in joining us, please send a message to
cesare.romano at lls.edu <mailto:cesare.romano at lls.edu>. I will then email
you the report for your review. If you then decide to endorse it, I will
need one or two sentences on yourself and/or your organization,
particularly if you work on extrajudicial exec., police abuse generally,
or Jamaica. Individuals and organizations endorsing the shadow report
will be listed in Annex A1. *_The deadline is August 22, 2014._*

Regards,

Cesare P.R. Romano, Ph.D., LL.M, D.E.S.

Professor of Law

W. Joseph Ford Fellow

Loyola Law School Los Angeles

919 Albany St.

90015-1211

Los Angeles, CA

USA

Tel: 213-736.8198

Fax: 213-380.3769