(Jamaica Gleaner) Jamaica will delay signing a major funding agreement with the European Union amid concerns from a local Christian group that the proposed deal “will bind Jamaica to undefined human rights obligations tied to trade sanction”.
The update from the Foreign Affairs and Foreign Ministry came Friday evening, five days before Jamaica was due to join members of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) in inking the Samoa Agreement, to replace the Cotonou arrangement that ended in 2020.
The ministry said the delay is to facilitate ongoing consultations.
In a statement Thursday, the lobby Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society argued that the Government was set to sign the new 20-year- agreement despite repeated calls by several citizens groups “to the glaring danger of multiple clauses” in the deals relating to the broader group and the Caribbean, in particular.
It said one clause would “reintroduce Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) back into schools despite parents’ outrage in 2012 with regards to CSE’s sexualizing content” while another would “demand the acceptance of terms that directly threaten citizens’ freedom of conscience and speech”.
