Dozens of human rights cases, including 18 lifetime prisoners at HMP Northward, will have to wait until at least November 2012 to gain a review of their cases under Cayman’s Human Rights Commission.

The cases include a longstanding plea by six Northward “lifers” seeking to have the courts declare a minimum term before a parole board can review their sentences.

Chairman of the Human Rights Commission Richard Coles told iNews on Thursday that none of the cases brought to the commission’s predecessor, the Human Rights Committee, had been passed to the commission and, therefore, the panel could take no action on them.

“We are not the Human Rights Committee,” Mr Coles said, “and all the papers are still with them. They [the applicants] will have to start again.

“I have no idea how many papers there are. We have on the commission some people that were also on the committee, and sometimes they can remember a bit, but it all gets a little muddy.”

Mr Coles spoke in the wake of the 21 October Grand Court appearance of Larry Ricketts, sentenced to life for the 2008 murder of Estella Scott. Attorneys for Ricketts told Justice Quin that his sentence contravened essential human-rights legislation by failing to set a minimum term he must serve before qualifying for parole review.

“I think Ricketts will struggle,” Mr Coles said, but declined to elaborate, saying only that the European Court of Human Rights was the only tribunal with jurisdiction and that “everything will be different as of November next year.”

Neither Mr Coles nor former members of the Human Rights Committee were able to say why no papers had been bequeathed to the commission, established in 2009 under the new Cayman Islands Constitution, replacing the more informal committee, which took its first case in 2006.

In June of that year, six lifetime prisoners at Northward, under the names Bruce, B Dixon, L Dixon, Powell, Roper and Thomas, filed a claim with the committee, appealing for a minimum sentence, known as a “tariff” under UK-signed human rights legislation, that would enable a
parole hearing.

Despite a subsequent committee report calling for the court to set a “tariff”, and subsequently refer the prisoners to the Parole Board or Grand Court, nothing has been done.

Under the present system, Mr Coles said, a prisoner can appeal to the governor for a “prerogative of mercy”, although the Office of the Governor on Friday was unable to say how frequent appeals were or how many had been granted.

One former member of the human rights committee, asking anonymity, said, however, the six “lifers” unquestionably qualified.

“They have an unanswerable case,” he said. “They will get a smack-bang, four-square victory. The arguments have all been run by people in the UK courts and the European [human rights] courts.”

A late-2007 committee report on five youths, aged between 13 and 16, in Fairbanks women’s prison called for the separation of youth and adults in prison. While little has been done to date about the recommendation, government plans a springtime opening for an $8 million Youth Rehabilitation Centre, complying with Bill of Rights legislation.

“We dealt with dozens of complaints by the end,” said the former committee member, but did not know why they had not been passed to the commission, but speculated that “political expediency” had prevented any action.

“It’s not going to be popular, and I’m not sure any politician wants to start talking about prisoners under life sentences,” he said.

Mr Coles said the Grand Court, next November, would have to review all 18 life sentences at Northward, and suggested judges “be pro-active and get it done” immediately.

“They will need to go through all the existing life sentences and review the tariffs to be in compliance,” with the Bill of Rights,” he said. “The court, rather than the governor, would be best to do it, otherwise we are going to have a whole series of prisoners bringing their cases and saying this is a violation of human rights. Come November, it will all change.”