Should VI children born out of wedlock have rights to property?
According to Law Reform Commissioner Ray C.M. Harris, who appeared on two radio programmes - Speak out BVI and Umoja- last week, the issue has been on hold for some time but it is now time for the Commission to address it in keeping with the convention and International Treaties that the VI has signed on to including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
According to Mr. Harris, it is no point being parties to conventions and International Treaties but not implementing them into domestic law. “So I think it is about time that we don’t only make an attempt, hopefully, but we in fact do the right thing.”
There would be several public consultations held on the issue before a draft could be done to put to Cabinet. The public consultations will begin on April 10, 2012 at the East End/Long Look Community Centre and continue on April 12 in Road Town (Methodist Church Hall); April 17 at Cane Garden Bay Baptist Church and April 18 in Virgin Gorda.
According to Douglas Wheatley on his radio programme Speak out BVI on Tuesday March 27, 2012, the issue is a sensitive and important one, which he thinks the Virgin Islands is a "little left of centre” on. “Here are a number of other Territories already, Guyana for instance and St. Kitts just to name two, have been very progressive in their views on this matter but somehow or the other the BVI has been lagging.”
Pastor Melvin Turnbull, who was a guest on the programme, believes it is fear that is preventing Virgin Islanders from doing what is “morally correct”. He noted the fact that the indigenous population being outnumbered by expatriates is one of the reasons for the fear. He said too that Virgin Islanders see the issue of ownership of property/land as the sceptre of power, which they would find it difficult to relinquish.
“We are afraid because we do not understand that we are indeed one people...I would normally say we have just been dropped off in different parts of the diaspora and so the fear of not knowing what would happen because we are afraid of knowing, we are sometimes driven to do the opposite of right,” Mr. Turnbull said.
He also said Virgin Islanders always had an individualistic approach, which can be detrimental especially now that we live in a global village rather than a vacuum.
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