Gordon Robinson | Genuflectory diplomacy

Dessie kept reminding us that his brother, the Dunce, fell on his head from a tree as a child and was never the same.

“Like we sey: Him head lick” was Dessie’s punchline. The Dunce was always proving Dessie right. In this particular game, Dessie played five three times. The Dunce cut five three times killing Dessie’s double-five.

“You nuh see mi telling you to leave five alone?” Dessie asked the Dunce.

“Because you tell me to do sump’n don’t mean I mus’ do it” the Dunce retorted. “If a macca mek it jook yu!”

The Dunce’s submission reverberated in my head as I watched an increasingly uncomfortable looking Kamina Johnson-Smith at a post-cabinet podium, announcing Government wouldn’t be disclosing the Deportee Dumpster Agreement’s terms despite previously promising to do so.

What was her explanation of Government’s barefaced breach of promise and obligation to Jamaica?

“This is not a unilateral arrangement. It’s a bilateral arrangement, and one in which they have not generally released their agreements, and they haven’t agreed to release this one.”

Kamina, there aren’t many “unilateral” agreements. None between nations! But, apparently, in this “bilateral agreement” only USA is “bi-” We not “bi-” too? How can one party to a bilateral agreement force the other to break its promise to its principals (us) on whose behalf the agreement was made? How does one party force the other to ignore its parliamentary obligations? Surely BOTH parties must agree to something so fundamental?

So it’s safe to conclude Jamaica agreed to non-disclosure. Why? Did the schoolyard bully say “agree or else….”? What was the “or else”? That’s not in the agreement so tell us of what you’re afraid.

Let’s take a simplified look at how bi-lateral treaties become enforceable. Remember this began as a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) so disclosure wasn’t mandated. Still just talk.

Kamina has now confirmed this is a completed, binding agreement between Jamaica and USA.

But is it?

No international treaty can be binding on any nation unless it’s ratified by Parliament. There are many such examples including the Cartagena Convention’s Protocol on Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife signed in 1990 but still unratified by Jamaica’s Parliament. Accordingly Jamaica can’t be held accountable for any breach of the Protocol.

Jamaica is party to seven of UN’s nine core international human rights treaties. Jamaica has signed and ratified International Conventions on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination; Civil and Political Rights; Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; Elimination of Discrimination Against Women; Rights of Children; Rights of Persons with Disabilities; Protection of Rights of All Migrant Workers and their families.

Jamaica has signed, but not ratified, Conventions against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; and for Protection from Enforced Disappearance. Ratified (thus enforceable) or not, the details of all these international treaties are widely available.

Don’t be distracted by the number of nations signing the above listed conventions. This TCN thingy is a bilateral international treaty but the same rules apply. Unless ratified by Jamaica’s Parliament, it’s akin to a secret agreement “negotiated” in a smoke-filled backroom - unenforceable. Why hide details from Jamaicans? The discomfort on Kamina’s face and my knowledge that she’s a highly intelligent, competent lawyer with a sound moral compass tells me Jamaica has once again been bullied into keeping those details secret. This doesn’t appear to be Kamina’s “druthers”.

The USA Senate’s website reports: “The United States Constitution provides that the president ‘shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur’. Treaties are binding agreements between nations [my emphasis] and become part of international law. Treaties to which the United States is a party also have the force of federal legislation…..”

This agreement, confirmed by Kamina to be a binding agreement between USA and Jamaica MUST be sent to USA’s Senate. But we’ve agreed not to send it to our Parliament? Not to tell a single Jamaican citizen?

What the Charles?

Not only has Jamaica been strong-armed into becoming USA’s Deportee Dumpster, its elected Government has meekly obeyed instructions not to disclose international agreement details to its citizens.

Remember, converted Nazi sympathizer Pastor Martin Niemöller? What would he say if alive in Jamaica today? First they instructed Jamaica to deport Cuban Doctors. You said nothing because you weren’t a Cuban Doctor. Then they dumped their deportees on Jamaica. You said nothing because no deportee was dumped on your yard. Then they instructed Jamaica to allow them to invade to extract “narco-terrorists”. You said nothing because you weren’t a narco-terrorist.

Now they instruct your public servants to hide international agreement details from you. You still say nothing because they haven’t given you any secret instructions and you still have a Visa. When they come for you (and your Visa) there’ll be nobody left to speak for you.

Congress already restricts deportation to third countries. On Friday a USA federal appeals court further restricted the schoolyard bully from deporting illegal migrants to other-than-home countries without notice to and choice by them.

But we bow, scrape and say “Yassuh Massa.”

This weak-kneed, spineless diplomacy is frightening. This isn’t diplomacy. It’s genuflection.

Peace and Love.

Gordon Robinson is an attorney-at-law. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com