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Amnesty International Report 2000 - Bahamas

Head of state: Queen Elizabeth II, represented by Orville Turnquest
Head of government: Hubert Alexander Ingraham
Capital: Nassau
Population: 0.3 million
Official language: English
Death penalty: retentionist

Three people were scheduled to be hanged following a statement by Prime Minister Hubert Alexander Ingraham that hangings would be carried out; one received a stay of execution. Asylum-seekers continued to be denied access to a full and fair refugee determination procedure. Conditions of detention at the Carmichael Detention Centre and the Fox Hill Prison fell well below international standards.

Death penalty

In June the Prime Minister stated in an address to government leaders from Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America that he "looked forward to a day not long from now when the Bahamas may consider [abolishing the death penalty]". This statement received public criticism nationally and within days the Prime Minister issued another statement pledging that more hangings would be carried out "very soon".

There were 20 people under sentence of death at the end of 1999.

• John Higgs and David Mitchell - who were convicted of unrelated murders in 1996 and 1994 respectively - were scheduled to be hanged in August, even though the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) was still considering their petitions. The government scheduled the executions because both petitions had been pending before the IACHR for more than 18 months. The two men had petitioned the IACHR claiming that they were subjected to human rights abuses during the course of proceeding against them. For example, in his petition John Higgs claimed that he was subjected to a mock execution in 1997.

The men were granted stays of execution so that the Bahamas Supreme Court could consider motions filed by the men which challenged the constitutionality of executing them. The Court denied their motion, by a three-to-two majority verdict. Strongly worded dissenting judgments stated that the conditions under which the men had been held in prison were such as to amount to inhuman and degrading punishment and that the men's sentences should, therefore, be commuted. Both men were scheduled to be hanged on 6 January 2000.

American Convention on Human Rights

In June the Minister of Foreign Affairs stated that the government would not ratify the American Convention on Human Rights on the grounds that the government viewed one of the main purposes of the Convention to be the abolition of the death penalty.

Asylum-seekers

There were concerns that the treatment of asylum-seekers arriving in the Bahamas breached international standards.

Asylum-seekers were regularly denied access to lawyers, translators, or the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to assist in making an asylum claim; some alleged that they were denied access to any refugee determination procedure. There was no appeal process available to applicants to challenge a decision refusing asylum.

Asylum-seekers were arbitrarily detained at the Carmichael Detention Centre in Nassau where conditions were squalid and insanitary. There were insufficient beds and detainees were often forced to sleep on the floor. The quality of both food and water was very poor and the medical treatment available was inadequate.

Prison conditions

Conditions of detention at Fox Hill Prison were appalling and fell well below international standards. There were reports that prisoners were housed in cells which received no natural light and that they were only allowed out of these cells two or three times a week. Prisoners under sentence of death were further reported to be held in conditions amounting to solitary confinement. The cells were insanitary and contained little or no furniture, so that prisoners were forced to sleep on the floor. Access to washing facilities was limited. Food was of a very poor quality and access to medical treatment for sick prisoners was restricted.