The Christian Association has, following its own consultation with members of public and private investors, has made its submissions to the Cayman Islands Government on its “National ID Register Bill” (“Register Bill”) and its “National Identification Card Bill” (“ID Card”)
The Association along with other stakeholders. having met with both the Honourable Leader of the Opposition, Mr Roy McTaggart and Honourable Deputy Leader Joey Hew and subsequently with the Honourable Minister of Innovation Mr Andre Ebanks, have cited various negative implications with the Bills. Some of the issues raised in its submissions included a lack of genuine public consultation, violations of privacy rights, and a power imbalance between the government and the individual through an expansion of categories and offences that can be created by regulations made in secret by Cabinet.
“Given the significance of the Proposed Legislation and the substantial nature of the proposed amendments, the failure to allow an informed public consultation offends the principles of open governance and Administrative Law.“,
states the Association before going on to set out other concerns regarding Cabinet’s extensive powers to make regulations:
“This level of delegation is inappropriate; it allows for the unfettered future extension of the Proposed Legislation together with the inclusion of substantial criminal sanctions. These powers would allow this, or any future government to radically extend the indicated scope without limitations which could lead to abuse and the erosion of civil liberties and privacy rights. It has happened before. Unchecked it could happen again.”
The Association also highlighted the government’s own admittance that more consultation is required, stating that “It is concerning that it has been suggested that public engagement with the Proposed Legislation should be left to public education at the implementation stage.” This is indicative of a lack of genuine consultation having occurred in the first place.
It is the duty of every Christian in this country to contact your politicians and express your views on the digital ID bills, in particular, the Register bill. If you are not able to discuss the Bills in details because you are unaware of the content or not able to understand its content, then you are one of the many people in the Cayman Islands for whom GENUINE consultation is required on these Bills perhaps in the form of a Twon Hall meeting; your elected representative does not have the right or power to shrug you off/tell you that “all is well” in any sense. They are to provide you with the opportunity to be heard and your concerns met. They are elected by you to represent your best interests and execute the will of the people and they can only be certain of what action they should take legislatively in matters such as this and other instances which have the potential to negatively affect your human rights by hearing from you.
The Association’s consultation submission can be viewed here and the discussion by Mr Christopher Perry attorney for the Christian Association on Talk Today with Sterlin Dwayne Ebanks can be viewed here
I agree with the Christian Association’s stance on the National ID Bill!