ATI tribunal okays disclosure of Armadale fire tragedy records
Published:Monday | February 7, 2022 | 12:09 AM
Human rights lobby Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ) has welcomed the move by the Access to Information (ATI) Appeal Tribunal to overrule the withholding and redaction of documents related to the deadly May 2009 fire at Armadale Juvenile Correctional Centre for Girls.
Seven girls perished while several others were injured in the horrific blaze at the St Ann-based facility.
In the ruling, shared on January 28, the ATI Tribunal declared that the exemptions claimed by the government respondents were “not applicable in the circumstances asserted”.
The ATI law, passed by Parliament in 2002, gives the public access to official documents held by public authorities, subject to a number of exemptions.
“Twelve years after the Armadale prison tragedy in May 2009, there is still no public accountability for the brutal state repression in response to several child prisoners protesting the inhumane and torturous living conditions,” JFJ said in a press statement.
The rights group contended that, amid years of public advocacy and the tabling of the 2009 Commission of Enquiry report, there has not been a full public accounting for the circumstances that led to a protest staged by the children.
The group also said that human-rights advocates have made numerous requests to various government bodies, with limited success.
Public bodies are mandated, under Section 7 of the ATI law, to acknowledge receipt of every application and grant access to the documents requested if they are not exempted. They are also required to respond “as soon as practicable”, but not later than 30 days after the application.
In 2015, Alexis Goffe, human rights advocate, began a series of ATI requests for documents containing information about circumstances prior to, connected with, and following the tragedy.
JFJ disclosed that the effort was thwarted on several occasions, stating that a number of agencies withheld, or heavily redacted, information in these documents.
Under the legislation, it is also an offence, punishable by a fine of $500,000 or six months in prison, to alter or deface, block or erase, destroy or conceal documents with the intention of preventing disclosure.
The organisation also expressed dissatisfaction with several administrative processes which it says were unearthed during the series of ATI requests.
As such, JFJ has called for a review of the act.
Referencing the discrepancies, JFJ said: “In some instances, government agencies asserted that documents could not be found or were not ‘within (their) possession, custody or control’. We submit that this signals poor record management or, at worst, a further attempt at withholding requested documents.”
Citing multiple fires and other tragedies at childcare facilities since 2009, JFJ says it is even more resolute in its efforts to bring to light the situation of children in Jamaica’s state care system.
The lobby said that families of children in state care, the public, and other stakeholders “deserve full transparency from the Government on its efforts to create the best environment for children in its care”.