Tobago s commitment to strengthening the ability to hold those guilty of terrible crimes to account, Amnesty International is appalled that the government is weakening the human rights protections of its own people. The government has taken this retrograde step for what appears to be a mistaken belief that the Optional Protocol was preventing the implementation of capital punishment. However, as the recent execution of 10 men in Trinidad and Tobago proved, the first Optional Protocol does not prevent nations from carrying out the death penalty. It seeks to protect the rights of all the citizens, including those under sentence of death. States cannot pick and choose which citizens will be protected by which human rights provisions.
Human rights are universal.
In the view of the Committee, this constitutes a discrimination which runs counter to some of the basic principles embodied in the Covenant and its Protocols. This action also weakened human rights protection. Trinidad and Tobago currently has approximately 81 men and women under sentence of death, which is the mandatory punishment for murder.