ASJA disappointed over UN vote on human rights chief

The An­ju­man Sun­nat ul Ja­maat As­so­ci­a­tion Inc. (AS­JA) has ex­pressed dis­ap­point­ment over Trinidad and To­ba­go's re­cent vote at the Unit­ed Na­tions con­cern­ing the reap­point­ment of the UN High Com­mis­sion­er for Hu­man Rights, say­ing it ap­pears to mark a de­par­ture from this coun­try's long­stand­ing sup­port for the Pales­tin­ian peo­ple.

In a state­ment yes­ter­day, AS­JA said while it re­spect­ed the Gov­ern­ment's sov­er­eign right to de­ter­mine the coun­try's for­eign pol­i­cy, it was con­cerned by what it viewed as a shift away from Trinidad and To­ba­go's tra­di­tion­al po­si­tion.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion re­called the role played by for­mer min­is­ter of for­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Dr Amery Browne, say­ing his lead­er­ship con­tributed sig­nif­i­cant­ly to Trinidad and To­ba­go's recog­ni­tion of the State of Pales­tine in 2024.

AS­JA said that de­ci­sion re­flect­ed the coun­try's "en­dur­ing com­mit­ment to in­ter­na­tion­al law, diplo­ma­cy, peace, and the pro­tec­tion of hu­man dig­ni­ty."

It urged the Gov­ern­ment to re­view its cur­rent po­si­tion, tak­ing in­to ac­count Trinidad and To­ba­go's "proud tra­di­tion of sup­port­ing jus­tice, hu­man­i­tar­i­an prin­ci­ples, and peace­ful di­a­logue among na­tions."

The or­gan­i­sa­tion al­so re­newed its call for sup­port for the Pales­tin­ian peo­ple, say­ing the hu­man­i­tar­i­an cri­sis in Gaza con­tin­ued to ex­act "an im­mea­sur­able toll on in­no­cent civil­ians, par­tic­u­lar­ly chil­dren and fam­i­lies."

AS­JA called on peo­ple of good­will, es­pe­cial­ly the Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ty, to con­tin­ue pray­ing for the peo­ple of Pales­tine and to re­main stead­fast in ad­vo­cat­ing for peace, jus­tice and the preser­va­tion of hu­man life.

It al­so prayed for re­lief for those suf­fer­ing, pro­tec­tion for in­no­cent civil­ians and a just and last­ing res­o­lu­tion to the con­flict.

Re­act­ing to the vote, Browne crit­i­cised the Gov­ern­ment's for­eign pol­i­cy stance.

He added that "every week Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and Min­is­ter Sean Sobers reaf­firm Trinidad and To­ba­go as a vas­sal state," ar­gu­ing that the coun­try's for­eign pol­i­cy was be­com­ing in­creas­ing­ly sub­or­di­nate to ex­ter­nal in­ter­ests.