The ma­jor­i­ty of cit­i­zens in Trinidad and To­ba­go have lost con­fi­dence in the present ad­min­is­tra­tion to pre­serve and pro­mote the rule of law and the dis­pen­sa­tion of jus­tice to one and all.

The on­set of the lat­est de­cree of a State of Emer­gency (SoE) made by the Pres­i­dent un­der Sec­tion 7 of the Con­sti­tu­tion on De­cem­ber 30th, 2024, at­tempts to cor­rect years of spi­ralling crim­i­nal may­hem, reach­ing the hor­ren­dous mur­der fig­ure, in ex­cess of 600 for the year 2024, not for­get­ting to men­tion dai­ly rob­beries, home in­va­sions, kid­nap­pings, but most dis­turb­ing, the mush­room­ing of crim­i­nal gangs in both Trinidad and To­ba­go, en­gag­ing in turf wars.

A state of emer­gency is a sit­u­a­tion in which a gov­ern­ment is em­pow­ered to im­ple­ment poli­cies that are nor­mal­ly not per­mit­ted un­der the coun­try’s con­sti­tu­tion for the safe­ty and pro­tec­tion of its cit­i­zens. A gov­ern­ment can de­clare such a state dur­ing nat­ur­al dis­as­ters, civ­il un­rest, and pan­demics.

A state of emer­gency has two main com­po­nents: A le­gal frame­work con­sist­ing of con­sti­tu­tion­al and leg­isla­tive bases and an op­er­a­tional frame­work in­volv­ing the or­gan­i­sa­tion­al struc­ture and strate­gic plans for de­liv­ery with the SoE.

Cer­tain hu­man rights are non-dero­gable un­der any cir­cum­stances ac­cord­ing to the Eu­ro­pean Con­ven­tion on Hu­man Rights (ECHR) and the In­ter­na­tion­al Covenant on Civ­il and Po­lit­i­cal Rights (IC­CPR).

As a mem­ber state, T&T is sub­ject to over­sight of var­i­ous UN hu­man rights bod­ies, in­clud­ing the IC­CPR. These rights in­clude the right of life, pro­hi­bi­tion of tor­ture, free­dom from slav­ery, the right to recog­ni­tion be­fore the law, pro­tec­tion of the rights of per­sons be­long­ing to mi­nori­ties, the pro­hi­bi­tion of pro­pa­gan­da ad­vo­cat­ing war, RACIAL OR RE­LI­GIOUS ha­tred.

How­ev­er, spe­cial emer­gency pow­ers are grant­ed by virtue of the con­sti­tu­tion or statu­to­ry laws. These in­clude the re­stric­tion of press free­dom and pro­hi­bi­tion of pub­lic meet­ings; evac­u­a­tion of peo­ple from their homes and

places of work; con­fis­ca­tion of pri­vate prop­er­ty, search­es of homes and pri­vate places with­out a search war­rant, and ar­rest with­out charges.

With T&T hav­ing a mul­ti­cul­tur­al so­ci­ety, racial and re­li­gious bait­ing, lead­ing to an­i­mos­i­ty and ha­tred, is for­ev­er present. Un­for­tu­nate­ly, re­li­gious zealots preach­ing ha­tred have found it con­ve­nient to pro­mote on­ly their be­liefs/faith, con­demn­ing all oth­ers.

The emer­gency pow­ers and reg­u­la­tions, 2024, ap­pear to fi­nal­ly give ‘teeth’ to the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice, but now in­cludes the De­fence Force and Coast Guard.

The 2024 SoE has no cur­few re­stric­tions; the pop­u­la­tion has free move­ment 24 hours dai­ly. There were, how­ev­er, four no­table de­c­la­ra­tions of state of emer­gen­cies that war­rant­ed the gov­ern­ments of the day to in­sti­tute cur­fews, lim­it­ing the move­ment of the pub­lic - 1970, 1990, 2011 and 2020.

In the Black Pow­er Rev­o­lu­tion of April 18th-25th, 1970, the ten­sion was the un­der­ly­ing cause of ri­ots, protest, army mutiny and a dev­as­tat­ed econ­o­my.

It was re­ferred to as the peo­ple’s and in­ter­est groups’ at­tempt to ef­fect so­cio-po­lit­i­cal change. There were mass demon­stra­tions, one be­ing the march to Ca­roni on March 12, 1970, to join in sol­i­dar­i­ty with the East In­di­an com­mu­ni­ty and a re­turn march to Port-of-Spain. The gov­ern­ment was de­ter­mined to stop In­di­ans from join­ing this “na­tion­al uni­ty” march and al­so en­ter­ing Port-of-Spain.

The at­tempt­ed coup car­ried out by the Ja­maat-al-Mus­limeen saw an­oth­er SoE im­posed on the coun­try in 1990. In­sur­gents stormed the Red House and took then-prime min­is­ter ANR Robin­son and most of his Cab­i­net hostage. Their com­pa­tri­ots at­tacked the lone tele­vi­sion sta­tion in T&T and its ra­dio sta­tion. Twen­ty-four per­sons were killed and many more were in­jured.

In Au­gust 2011, the Gov­ern­ment un­der then-prime min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar an­nounced a lim­it­ed SoE and cur­few in “hotspots” in T&T to deal with es­ca­lat­ing crime, in an at­tempt to tack­le “law­less­ness,” for a pe­ri­od of 15 days. Cur­few hours were 9 pm-5 am.

The prime min­is­ter stat­ed that in one raid, the po­lice seized in ex­cess of $20 mil­lion in drugs.

The coun­try’s then-at­tor­ney gen­er­al said the move had be­come nec­es­sary af­ter in­tel­li­gence re­vealed an “im­me­di­ate threat and en­dan­ger­ment of pub­lic safe­ty” in T&T.

The re­cent pan­dem­ic SoE of 2020 last­ed ap­prox­i­mate­ly six months; it was in­tend­ed to bring un­der con­trol COVID-19. Poli­cies im­ple­ment­ed in­clud­ed a cur­few, so­cial dis­tanc­ing and cur­tail­ing of busi­ness hours. Af­ter weigh­ing the pros and cons of such an ac­tion, the Gov­ern­ment de­cid­ed to end it; there was ma­jor dis­rup­tion to the econ­o­my, T&T’s in­ter­na­tion­al rep­u­ta­tion and so­cial dis­lo­ca­tion.