Coke: ‘Many employers ignorant of religious liberty rights’

Public Affairs and Religious Liberty (PARL) Director at the Jamaica Union, Nigel Coke, says a greater understanding of religious freedom among local employers and other stakeholders could reduce the constitutional infringements believers face.

 

Speaking during the afternoon panel discussion at the 2024 CJC PARL symposium held May 25 at the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) church in Spanish Town, Coke said ignorance of the constitution leads to some of the friction between religious persons and the organisations they are part of.

 

“I believe that a lot of the employers are not aware that they are infringing on workers' rights. Some of them just brush it aside to say ‘Hey, I don't care’, but if you don't care where a law is concerned I believe you're in serious trouble…This subject needs to be raised at a particular level so that some level of understanding can arise [about] the law of Jamaica,” Coke said.

 

He says plans are underway to host a religious liberty summit in January 2025 to address the information gap.

 

“I'm inviting all the stakeholders- the unions, the Employers Federation, the Ministries of Labour and Legal and Constitutional Affairs along with all our administrators and other churches- and we are going to be discussing religious freedom because some education can come out of it,” Coke stated.

 

Earlier in the symposium, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Legal and Constitutional Affairs (MLCA), Wayne Robertson, speaking on behalf of Minister Marlene Malahoo Forte, reiterated that religious freedom for Jamaicans is enshrined in the 2011 Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, Section 17. He also addressed upcoming amendments to the charter.

 

“The constitutional reform committee will be looking at the Charter of Rights to improve upon it in phase two of its work. I cannot anticipate exactly what those changes will be but it would be for the benefit of us all…rest assured that it is not the intention of the ministry or the committee to alter or to make any adjustments to those rights,” he said.

 

Ivan Godfrey, legal education officer in the MLCA and attorney-at-law, further stated on the afternoon panel that constitutional amendments usually enlarge legal rights rather than decrease them and that this is the expected outcome.

 

The panel discussion on Religious Liberty and the Emerging Job Market which was moderated by Central Jamaica Conference PARL director, Dr. Kemar Douglas, also included attorneys-at-law Wendel Wilkins and Kherie Osborne, the latter serving as the assistant religious liberty leader at the SDAC in Sydenham.

 

In a presentation on Religious Liberty and the Charter of Human Rights, attorney-at-law and religious liberty leader at the Family of God SDAC, Essence Monroe Douglas, reminded congregants that freedom comes with responsibility. She addressed situations in which religious expression has been legally curtailed due to infringements on the rights of others such as preaching on buses, questionable devotional practices in schools and children’s rights abuses by religious sects.

 

“Under Section 22, once you're interfering with somebody else's right in practising your right to religious freedom this is where you have to stop…the government will not allow us to do that…the Bible says all things must be done in decency and order so we must ensure we are not encroaching on the right of anyone else,” she counselled.

 

She also urged SDAs to treasure the freedom to worship according to one’s conscience because Bible prophecy points to a time when this right will be taken away.