Rape is considered to be any kind of forced penetration, Michelle Brown, attorney for Shanique Myrie, yesterday told judges at the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in Port-of-Spain as she presented arguments for damages for Myrie.The CCJ began the first of two days of final submissions in the matter in which Myrie, 25, is alleging when she travelled to Barbados on March 14, 2011, she was subjected to a body-cavity search by Barbados immigration officials, detained overnight in a cell and deported to Jamaica the following day.
The case began in Jamaica on March 14 and continued in Barbados on March 18. The CCJ yesterday heard a full day of submissions from counsel for Myrie and Jamaica, which has been described as an "intervener" in the matter.With Myrie listening attentively, Brown said she was contending she was raped by a government official and the matter went beyond cruel and inhumane treatment to the level of torture.
"The claimant is contending the treatment was of a sexual nature and was perpetrated on her by an element of the State," Brown said.She said Myrie, an innocent 22-year-old who travelled out of Kingston for the first time in 2011, is in fear because of the "unsanitised situation" and was forced to succumb to two assaults.
After the incident Myrie was kept in a cell not fit for even an incarcerated criminal, complaining about the bed she was made to sleep on for one night, Brown said. She said, to date, no reason had been given for the treatment.Justice Rolston Nelson, one of the seven CCJ judges hearing the matter, wanted to know what was a comfortable bed and asked if expertise should be brought in. Brown said that was not necessary and a human being knew what inhumane treatment was.
Myrie is claiming she was subjected to the unfair treatment because she is Jamaican.Brown told the court Myrie should be awarded a sum that would take into account all she endured, which would be sufficient reparation for her damages. Rattling off some figures, she said the cost of the damages was e-mailed to the CCJ over the weekend. In one instance alone, the costs were given as US$400,000.
Myrie is claiming costs for moral damages. Brown said she visited a psychiatrist, who said she suffered symptoms of anxiety, depression and fear of people after the incident in Barbados.Nelson asked Brown if the psychiatrist had any evidence of that happening. "This is what she told him. It relates to what she said in her witness statement," he noted.
Brown, looking puzzled, replied Myrie had seen the psychiatrist.She told the court the discrimination against Myrie because of her nationality was in violation of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and the 2007 Decision of the Conference of Caricom Heads of Government. These agreements provide Caricom nationals with a right of entry to all Caricom countries, Brown said.Brown is also claiming Myrie's treatment by Barbados immigration officials violated international human rights laws.
Nelson said he had never seen any case in which the CCJ adjudicated on human rights.The CCJ yesterday also heard a submission from Dr Kathy-Ann Brown, attorney for Jamaica.Showing statistics, she contended there was a trend in Barbados of discriminating against Jamaican and Guyanese nationals travelling there. Dr Brown said more Jamaicans and Guyanese were refused entry into Barbados than other Caribbean nationals. T&T nationals showed the highest rate of arrivals there.
Justice Winston Anderson asked if she did not think criminals were excluded because of other factors, like criminal offences, for instance.Barbados, the defendant, in a previous hearing, admitted Myrie was kept overnight, questioned and returned to Jamaica the next day.Barbardos is strenuously denying any search of Myrie's body was ever conducted or that she was subjected to discriminatory, cruel, inhumane, insulting or demeaning treatment.
Caricom has also indicated it will make written and oral submissions in the matter. The matter resumes today, the final day of submissions.