JAMAICA | PNP Applauds Court Ruling as Victory for Rastafarian Rights

KIGSTON, Jamaica. July 15, 2024: Shadow Minister of Culture and Creative Industries, Dr.  Deborah Hickling Gordon, has hailed the ruling of the Court of Appeal on July 15, 2024, that the constitutional rights of a female student who was denied access to Kensington Primary  in 2018 after her family refused to trim her dreadlocks hair had been breached.

In a statement today, Dr. Hickling said that “ The People’s National Party finds it telling that the Government vigorously argued against the claim brought by the Rastafarian child, both at first instance and on appeal.”

She said “the intent of the government in this regard was clearly to negate her constitutional rights being judicially recognized and protected.  By claiming in other situations to ‘stand with the Rastafari community’ while fighting in court to take away their rights, the Government’s actions are nothing less than hypocritical and manipulative publicity efforts concerned only with optics; while in reality, they act in a manner that is opposite of what they are telling the country.”

As such, Dr. Hickling Gordon has identified the July 15 ruling by the Court of Appeal as a step in the right direction that should lead the government towards addressing, in a meaningful manner, multiple specific and long overdue requests from the Rastafarian community that the Minister, herself has said she is in receipt of.  

“The government needs to use this ruling as a clear indicator that it is time to actively move above and beyond the symbolism of celebratory days and apologies as recently proffered, to also respond with meaningful action on behalf of the Jamaican citizens who form the Rastafarian community,” the Shadow Spokesperson on Culture and Creative Industries said.

“For about a century, the Rastafarian community has been subject to dastardly cases of discrimination on the basis of wearing their hair in ‘dreadlocks’. Discriminatory perceptions and practices such as this are deeply formed and performed within the Jamaican society.  

“They are based on stereotypes related primarily to race, class and economic access. The ruling is therefore a triumph for Afrocentric self-expression, which forms a well-identified part of Jamaica’s identity conflict”.  

The People’s National Party is committed to social justice, equity and diversity; and to actively and inclusively addressing the specific concerns of the Rastafarian community, Dr. Hickling declared.

The Court of Appeal on Monday ruled that Kensington Primary had breached the constitutional rights of a female student who was denied access in 2018 after failing to trim her dreadlocked hair. 

Outgoing president of the Court of Appeal, Justice Patrick Brooks, in handing down the decision, said: "It is declared that the board of management of Kensington Primary on the wearing of dreadlocks hairstyle has breached the following rights as they related to ZV's rights."

The judge noted that the child's right to freedom of expression and the right to equitable treatment by a public authority in the exercise of any function were violated.

The landmark decisions overturned in part a 2020 decision of the Supreme Court that the school's policy did not breach the child's constitutional rights.

The school had justified its position on the basis that it found that the hairstyle harboured lice and 'junjo' (mould) infestation, and threatened to withdraw their child's admission if the then five-year-old student's hairstyle remained.

But the student's parents, Dale and Sherine Virgo, who refused to cut their daughter's hair, instead filed a lawsuit against the school's board, the Education Ministry, and the Attorney General, arguing that the child's constitutional rights had been breached.

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