Prince William says people in ex-colonies must decide monarchy's role

MSN – AFP, 27 March 2022 

© CHANDAN KHANNA Prince William has said that the Caribbean's former British
colonies must decide whether to scrap the monarchy's role in their countries

Prince William ended a turbulent tour of the Caribbean by starkly admitting this weekend that the region's former British colonies must decide whether to scrap the monarchy's role in their countries. 

The 39-year-old Duke of Cambridge also hinted that a British royal may in future no longer head the club of 54 Commonwealth countries as the political association of ex-colonies evolves. 

The unusually candid comments, which were splashed on the front of several British newspapers Sunday, followed a rocky three-country Caribbean tour over the last week which drew both protests and criticism. 

William and his wife Catherine, 40, faced calls to apologise for the slave trade that helped make past British royals' fortunes, and accusations of appearing "tone deaf" over elements of the visit. 

They were also forced to confront the issue of former colonies considering whether to follow Barbados' lead and ditch the queen as their head of state. 

Barbados formally declared itself a republic in November. 

Belize, Jamaica and The Bahamas -- all stops on the royal tour -- are each said to be mulling such a move. 

Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness pointedly told William in front of television cameras that the nation was "moving on" as an independent country. 

"I know that this tour has brought into even sharper focus questions about the past and the future," the Duke of Cambridge said in an end-of-tour statement Saturday. 

"In Belize, Jamaica and The Bahamas, that future is for the people to decide upon."   

William added he and his wife "are committed to service" and that meant "not telling people what to do" but instead "serving and supporting them". 

'On my mind' 

The Commonwealth, a grouping of 54 mainly former British colonies, is headed by Queen Elizabeth II. 

In 2018, its leaders formally announced that her son and heir Prince Charles would inherit the role when he becomes king. 

But William, second-in-line to the throne, said that "who the Commonwealth chooses to lead its family in the future isn't what is on my mind". 

"What matters to us is the potential the Commonwealth family has to create a better future for the people who form it, and our commitment to serve and support as best we can," he added. 

The couple's Caribbean trip was intended to help Commonwealth countries where his 95-year-old grandmother is also head of state celebrate her record-breaking 70 years on the throne. 

But what were designed to be carefully choreographed photocalls and public appearances for Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee did not go entirely to plan. 

In Belize, they angered some locals after failing to consult on parts of their itinerary, while they then prompted placard-bearing protests in Jamaica. 

Demonstrators demanded the monarchy pay reparations and apologize for its role in the slave trade that brought hundreds of thousands of Africans to the island to toil under inhumane conditions. 

Meanwhile, some of the optics of the tour drew criticism for evoking colonial rule, including the couple greeting kids through metal chain-link fences and William parading in an open-topped jeep in military uniform.

Homosexuality illegal in 41 out of 53 Commonwealth countries – report

Anti-gay discrimination not on the agenda of this month's heads of government meeting in Sri Lanka

theguardian.com, Helen Davidson, Sunday 10 November 2013

A gay rights activist at a march in New Delhi. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters

Homosexuality is illegal in 41 out of the 53 Commonwealth countries, a report released on Monday reveals.

Despite this, the forthcoming Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm) in Sri Lanka has elected not to discuss the issue of anti-gay discrimination.

Commissioned by the Australian Kaleidoscope Human Rights Foundation and compiled by LGBT activists throughout the Commonwealth, the report calls for Commonwealth countries to repeal anti-gay legislation, with an immediate moratorium on enforcement.

“If you look at the world as a whole, around about 40% of nations have state-sponsored homophobia,” said Kaleidoscope’s spokesman, Douglas Pretsell.

“Half of those – about 54% – are in the Commonwealth. If you look at the rest of the world not inside the Commonwealth, it’s only 24.5% – so the Commonwealth has a big problem.

“These are laws that make it illegal to be gay.”

Pretsell said the anti-gay laws were hangover from British colonial rule. It exported laws – including those outlawing sodomy – to Commonwealth countries, where they persist backed by the prevalence of strong religious views among the populations.

“It’s worth noting that in the vast majority of these countries, the laws sit there and they’re completely unused, so no one is ever prosecuted. But [the laws’ existence are] used as a way to intimidate and harass.”

Australia did not completely decriminalise homosexuality until 1997 after a legal case was brought to the UN. From 2007-13 all forms of legislated discrimination were removed from Australian law.

“Faith organisations continue to play a big role in the provision of services,” the report says.

“Although anti-discrimination legislation ensures that faith-run aged-care facilities do not discriminate, there are exemptions for faith-run schools, hospitals, clinics, employment agencies and businesses.”

Pretsell expressed concern that the issue will not be on Chogm’s agenda. The meeting takes on 15-17 November.

“It is not to be talked about at all. In fact Sri Lanka has gone out of its way to refuse visas to any lesbian or gay group, to ban their own activists in the country, and the agenda has absolutely nothing focused on this.”

The report is littered with stories of violence and discrimination. According to the one testimony, the movement for change in Belize has come at a cost for a man who started it.

“As the only claimant in the current constitutional challenge case, I have lost two teeth, had my family property invaded and car damaged by two masked men in the week of the supreme court hearings in May of this year,” writes Caleb Orozco, executive director of the United Belize Advocacy Movement.

“I have had stones thrown at me, experienced simulated gunshots, insults and physical harm on public transportation, threats that speak to, ‘Caleb, you have no right to breathe!’”

The Commonwealth charter does not specifically enshrine protection of people based on their sexual orientation. “We are implacably opposed to all forms of discrimination, whether rooted in gender, race, colour, creed, political belief or other grounds,” it reads.

It does however enforce a commitment to the UN declaration of human rights.

Pretsell would like to see Australia make bilateral agreements with regional neighbours to remove discriminatory laws.

“Before the last election we worked on getting a pledge from each of the political parties that they would support LGBTI rights in their bilateral and multilateral relations in foreign policy. We got the Greens to sign up, we got Labor to sign up and we got individual Liberals to sign up.”

Pretsell said Kaleidoscope had sent the report to the foreign minister, Julie Bishop, and the prime minister, Tony Abbott.

“I received a response from Julie Bishop, but we have quite a cordial relationship, so I was expecting that,” he said.

“Obviously Tony Abbott’s office is busier than Julie Bishop’s, so I’ve not received a reply from that. But we sent a letter specifically to him to ask him to ensure that 2015 Chogm has these matters brought to the table again.”

The offices of the foreign minister and the prime minister have been contacted for comment.

Related Articles:

European court ruling gives gay people hope

European court rules civil unions must be open to gay people

Locals help protect Guatemala's rare forests

Deutsche Welle, 15 October 2013

Indigenous communities of northern Guatemala have been given the right to make a living off their tropical forests, preventing illegal logging and destruction. The project helps save the forest as well as combat poverty.

 A man carries guano palm leaves on his head in Carmelito, Guatemala.
(Photo: Helle Jeppesen)

Guatemala’s northern province, the Peten, is home to the Maya Biosphere Reserve – a vast area of tropical forest, wetlands and Mayan ruins. It’s considered one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet.

But the lush area that lies between Mexico and Belize, is also home to crippling poverty. For centuries, the indigenous population has suffered under colonization and military dictatorships with many locals driven away, forcefully relocated and even murdered.

Things have come a long way since. There are now initiatives to engage residents, hand them back rights to produce from the forests and give them a say in managing forest resources. The aim is to combat poverty as well as protect the forest.

Involving local communities

The biosphere reserve is home
to several Mayan ruins

The indigenous groups of the Maya Biosphere Reserve have organized themselves in the ACOFOP (Asociación de Comunidades Forestales de Petén), an association of forest communities in the Peten. They have even received a forestry concession to sustainably log and use the forest.

"One of the biggest successes of ACOFOP is that the communities have the chance to benefit from the forest," Marcedonio Cortave, the president and one of the initiators of ACOFOP, told DW. "It’s shown that extremely impoverished groups can develop through the sustainable use of resources and improve their living standards."

Back in 1986, after the end of the military dictatorship in Guatemala, there was even international support for plans to set up a biosphere in the old Mayan stronghold in the Peten. But, Cortave said, most of the western non-governmental organizations wanted to place the entire area under protection without involving the indigenous population.

"That’s a model that may work in rich countries. But environment conservation needs to be done differently in a nation with high poverty rates and few chances for people," Cortave said. "You have to emphasize the sustainable use of resources."

Sustainable forestry in action

Carmelita is an example of how that works in practice. The community in the north of the Peten consists of 80 families with a total of 380 residents. Earlier, the village lived off chicle, the white, gummy sap from the bark of the Sapodilla tree. It was exported as a raw material for chewing gum. But with the synthetic production of chewing gum, prices and production of chicle fell, robbing the community of its livelihood.

Today, the families of Carmelita depend on the forest, especially tropical wood, to survive. Each year, they cut one to three trees per hectare. The wood is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, ensuring that it’s sustainably produced. Similarly, FSC-certified xate leaves are exported to Mexico and the US where they are used in flower arrangements.

Residents continue to tap the chicle sap and use the leaves of the guano palm for traditional roofs. Pimiento – a type of wild pepper – is also among the profitable products sourced from the forest. All in all, the community manages over 50,000 hectares of forest, of which more than 20,000 hectares consists of wood products.

The formerly impoverished community now has a school, a permanently stationed nurse and health care for all its residents. Young adults wanting to do training in one of the bigger cities are given financial support by the community. An own lumber mill and a carpenter’s workshop provide further training opportunities and jobs.

The mule remains a popular mode of
transportation in the Peten

And in a more recent development, tourism in the region is being given a boost. A five-day tour brings holidaymakers to Mirador, one of the most famous Maya ruins in the region. It takes two days to travel there on the back of a mule through the rainforest, accompanied by guides, cooks and muleteers from Carmelita.

A win-win situation

For the residents of Carmelita, forestry concessions to log, trade and use the forest sustainably has been crucial to their survival. But it’s not just the native population that has benefitted. The forest too has come out a winner.

Whether it’s Carmelita, San Andrés or other poor communities in the Peten, sustainable forestry has proven to the most effective weapon against illegal logging. There are fewer forest fires in areas managed by local communities. And even the biodiversity of the rainforests has been helped through sustainable and long-lasting management that’s calculated in terms of decades and not years.

The forestry concessions have brought
jobs and opportunities to poor communities
in the Peten

The biggest threat for the local population is the expiration of the forestry concessions. In Carmelita too, residents face an uncertain future because they don’t know for sure whether the concessions they’ve been given for 25 years will be renewed by successive governments.

"We need a long-term vision for the protection of the forests," says David Kaimowitz, an expert on natural resources at the Ford Foundation in New York. "Even the communities need long-term security so that they can plan and manage the forest sensibly."

Mayan pyramid bulldozed by Belize construction crew

BBC News, 14 May 2013

Related Stories

• Mexico finds ancient playing fields
• Oldest Maya calendar unearthed
• In pictures: Maya calendar ends

Only the core of the pre-Columbian
mound was left standing

Officials in Belize say a construction company has destroyed one of the country's largest Mayan pyramids.

Head of the Belizean Institute of Archaeology Jaime Awe said the Noh Mul temple was levelled by a road-building company seeking gravel for road filler.

The Mayan temple dates back to pre-Columbian times and is estimated to be 2,300 year old. Only a small core of the pyramid was left standing.

Police said they were investigating the incident.

Archaeologists said this was not the first incident of its kind.

"Bulldozing Maya mounds for road fill is an endemic problem in Belize," Prof Normand Hammond told the Associated Press news agency.

Archaeologists said they were alerted to the destruction late last week.

The Maya complex lies on private land but under Belizean law, any pre-Hispanic ruins come under government protection.

Dr John Morris of the Belizean Institute of Archaeology said the workers would have been aware of what they were doing.

"It is incredible that someone would actually have the gall to destroy this building out here," he told local TV channel News 7.

"There is absolutely no way that they would not know that these are Maya mounds," he said about the ancient structure.

Prosecutors said they were considering bringing criminal charges against the construction company.

Fugitive McAfee seeks asylum in Guatemala

Google - AFP, 4 December 2012

A woman views a Facebook page belonging to John McAfee (AFP/File, Karen Bleier)

GUATEMALA CITY — American Internet pioneer John McAfee, wanted for questioning over the murder of his neighbor last month in Belize, is seeking political asylum in Guatemala, his lawyer said Tuesday.

McAfee, 67, amassed huge wealth as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur in the 1990s, designing the hugely popular anti-virus software that bears his name and remains a leading industry product to this day.

In a plotline worthy of a Hollywood thriller, the multi-millionaire went on the run from his home on the idyllic Belize paradise island of Ambergris Caye hours after neighbor Gregory Faull was murdered on November 11.

With his 20-year-old girlfriend Sam Vanegas in tow, he managed to cross the border into Guatemala over the weekend and has secured the services of star lawyer Telesforo Guerra, a former Guatemalan attorney general.

"I have to manage his political asylum," Guerra told AFP after meeting McAfee early Tuesday at a hotel in Guatemala City.

McAfee "is persecuted in Belize, persecuted politically because he stopped financing the government. They accuse him of a common crime. So what I have to obtain is an authorization of asylum," the lawyer said.

Asked whether McAfee fears being assassinated, Guerra said: "Yes, he fears for his life, because after having helped and supported the current government in Belize, they now want more and more money, which they pocket and don't invest."

McAfee, who maintains his innocence, has left a confusing and often contradictory trail of information about his life on the run on his blog, whoismcafee.com.

"It was not easy to exit Belize and required many supporters in many countries," he wrote on Tuesday.

"I am in Guatemala and will be meeting with Guatemalan officials this morning. If all goes well I will do a press conference tomorrow (Wednesday)," he added.

Before fleeing south into Guatemala, he put out a false report saying he had been captured near the northern Mexican border and claimed to have sent a "double" with a North Korean passport to Mexico as another decoy.

Internet users tracked a photo from a magazine on Monday to Guatemala, but McAfee initially claimed to have encrypted it to throw police off the scent.

"I apologize for all of the misdirections over the past few days," McAfee, who is traveling with two reporters from Vice magazine, wrote on Tuesday.

"Yesterday was chaotic due to the accidental release of my exact co-ordinates by an unseasoned technician at Vice headquarters," he said.

"We made it to safety in spite of this handicap. I had to cancel numerous interviews with the press yesterday because of this and I apologize to all of those affected."

Vice magazine put out an article Tuesday with a photo showing Guerra and McAfee having breakfast and claiming that Sam, McAfee's partner on the lam, was actually the lawyer's niece.

"I have known Samantha for a year and a half. She is a remarkable young woman. I love her very much and we are getting married," McAfee is quoted as telling Guerra.

"Unfortunately you will have a potential criminal in the family. My apologies for that, and I will do the best I can to make it up to you," he added, reportedly prompting an amused response from Guerra.

Police say Faull, a 52-year-old Florida expat, was discovered by his housekeeper with a 9-mm slug in his head lying in a pool of his own blood.

Belize Prime Minister Dean Barrow has described McAfee as "bonkers," saying he is only wanted for questioning as a "person of interest" in the case and urging him to give himself up.

Prior to his murder, Faull had led neighbors in writing a letter to the mayor complaining that McAfee's "vicious" dogs and aggressive security guards were scaring tourists and residents alike.

McAfee shot dead four of his dogs before fleeing, claiming they had been poisoned, possibly by Faull.

Police said the dogs were exhumed last week and ballistics experts are seeing if the slugs match up with the one found in Faull's head.

McAfee decamped to Belize in 2009 after losing an estimated $96 million of his $100 million fortune due to bad investments and the financial crisis.

According to profiles in The New York Times and tech magazine Wired, his lifestyle became increasingly extreme as he descended into a drug-fuelled existence centered on young prostitutes.

McAfee was briefly incarcerated in April after police found him living with a 17-year-old girl and discovered an arsenal of seven pump-action shotguns, one single-action shotgun, and two 9-mm pistols. 

Related Articles:

Fugitive John McAfee arrested in Guatemala

John McAfee's life on the margins

U.S. Products Help Block Mideast Web

Offshore secrets revealed: the shadowy side of a booming industry

A worldwide research effort in collaboration with the Guardian/ICIJ reveals the real people behind these anonymous companies

The Guardian, David Leigh, Harold Frayman and James Ball, 25 November 2012

James Ball travels to the tiny Caribbean island of Nevis searching for Sarah Petre-Mears,

 who on paper controls more than 1,200 companies scattered around the Caribbean, the

Republic of Ireland, New Zealand and the UK itself Link to this video

The existence of an extraordinary global network of sham company directors, most of them British, can be revealed.

The UK government claims such abuses were stamped out long ago, but a worldwide joint investigation by the Guardian, the BBC's Panorama and the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has uncovered a booming offshore industry that leaves the way open for both tax avoidance and the concealment of assets.

Offshore Secrets

More than 21,500 companies have been identified using this group of 28 so-called nominee directors. The nominees play a key role in keeping secret hundreds of thousands of commercial transactions. They do so by selling their names for use on official company documents, using addresses in obscure locations all over the world.

This is not illegal under UK law, and sometimes nominee directors have a legitimate role. But our evidence suggests this particular group of directors only pretend to control the companies they put their names to.

The companies themselves are often registered anonymously offshore in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), but also in Ireland, New Zealand, Belize and the UK itself. More than a score of UK agencies sell offshore companies, several of which also help supply sham directors.

One British couple, Sarah and Edward Petre-Mears, who migrated from Sark in the Channel Islands to the Caribbean island of Nevis, have sold their services to more than 2,000 entities, with their names appearing on activities ranging from Russian luxury property purchases to pornography and casino sites.

In 1999, the government claimed Britain's sham director industry had been "effectively outlawed" after a judge, Mr Justice Blackburne, said the court would not tolerate "the situation where someone takes on the directorship of so many companies and then totally abrogates responsibility". But our findings show this has failed to be policed.

These nominee fronts conceal a wide variety of real owners, including those that are perfectly legal, from Russian oligarchs to discreet speculators in the British property market. Their only common factor is the wish for secrecy. Some of the owners we have identified include:

• Vladimir Antonov, the London-based billionaire Russian purchaser of Portsmouth FC, who is currently fighting an extradition request from Lithuania, where he controlled a bank. He denies wrongdoing.

• Yair Spitzer, a north London software engineer who bought and sold London flats. He said: "We were advised by UK accountants that this structure … was perfectly legal."

• The Hackmeys, a wealthy Israeli family, one of whom used a BVI company to buy a £26m London office block. Their spokesman said: "The deal was introduced by a [confidential] joint venture partner who set up the deal and structure."

• Nicholas Joannou, whose Armstrong Group sold shares from an address in Berkeley Square, central London. The Guardian was unable to contact him.

• SP Trading, which was linked in 2009 to a Kazakh businessman and an arms to Iran scandal. The nominee directors in Vanuatu turned out to have no knowledge of the company's true activities. They told us there were "very few cases of misuse by clients".

In a parallel investigation Monday's Panorama on BBC1 is due to show a company formation agent offering to assist its undercover reporter to escape tax. The agent, James Turner, of Turner Little in York, offers nominee directors in Belize and says: "They won't even know that they were a director, they just get paid."

A representative of a second company, Atlas Corporate Services, is asked for maximum confidentiality. He explains that many of its nominees are not even aware of how their names are being used. Jesse Hester, who runs Atlas Corporate Services from Mauritius, is seen assuring a potential client that the UK is unlikely to catch up with him. "Tax authorities don't have the resources to chase everybody down … They reckon it's probably the same rough odds as probably winning the lottery," he says.

The revelations launch a week-long series onthe Guardian site designed to strip away anonymity from offshore companies, the most shadowy aspect of the UK's financial industry. The British Virgin Islands are a particularly successful hideaway, thanks to the exceptional secrecy on offer. This Caribbean territory, which is ultimately controlled by the UK, has sold more than a million anonymously-owned offshore entities since launching itself in 1984 as a tax haven.

The purchasers are often people who, for a variety of reasons, some perfectly legitimate, do not wish to advertise what they are doing with their wealth.

But a worldwide research effort has been launched this year by the ICIJ. It aims to identify, country by country, thousands of the true owners.

The Guardian has collaborated with the ICIJ, a non-profit organisation, to analyse many gigabytes of the British data. This week we intend to reveal the names of more owners. We do not suggest criminal wrongdoing by them. Among those we have contacted, not all go so far as to employ nominee directors. Some insist they have done nothing improper, and are merely taking advantage of legitimate tax breaks or the opportunity for privacy. Critics say, however, that the islands' system can be open to abuse because of its lack of transparency.

Gerard Ryle, the director of the ICIJ, said: "We are applying specialist software to crunch through literally hundreds of thousands of offshore entities to look for patterns. We are marrying our findings with old-fashioned shoe leather and interviews from key insiders who can provide further context on this little known and loosely regulated world. We are satisfied that the information we have is authentic."

Ryle believes the ICIJ's global project, when it is completed next year, will haul into the open a shadowy financial system estimated to conceal the movement around the world of trillions of dollars.

Offshore secrets

Guardian team: David Leigh, Harold Frayman and James Ball.

The project is a collaboration between the Guardian and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) headed by Gerald Ryle in Washington DC. Guardian investigations editor David Leigh is a member of ICIJ, a global network of reporters in more than 60 countries who collaborate on in-depth investigative stories that cross national boundaries. The ICIJ was founded in 1997 as a project of the Center for Public Integrity, a Washington DC-based non-profit.

Related Articles:

Revealed: the real identities behind Britain's secret property deals - New

Vince Cable promises to investigate offshore sham director industry

BBC's Panorama shows staff admitting nominee directors are often a sham

The woman running 1,200 firms from a Caribbean rock

The 'Sark Lark' Britons scattered around the world

British Virgin Islands, land of sand, sea and secrecy

The offshore trick: how BVI 'nominee director' system works


Treasury to crack down on UK's offshore tax havens

$21tn: hoard hidden from taxman by global elite

Treasury to crack down on UK's offshore tax havens

Channel Islands and Isle of Man will be among those ordered to reveal names behind hidden accounts

The guardian, The Observer, Jamie Doward, Saturday 24 November 2012

The Cayman Islands: will they really come clean about their tax practices?
Photograph: Martin Barraud/Getty Images

Radical plans to force the UK's tax havens to reveal the names behind hidden companies, account holders and trusts have been drawn up by the Treasury.

The news has delighted tax justice campaigners, who predict that the move, which is expected to be unveiled in the chancellor's autumn statement and come into force in 2014, will have major consequences for those trying to hide their money offshore.

A leaked document reveals that the UK plans to impose its own version of the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (Fatca) on the crown dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, as well as its overseas territories, such as the Cayman Islands.

Fatca, which will come into force in the middle of next year, requires foreign banks to report American account holders to the US Inland Revenue Service. The draft UK equivalent, seen by the magazine International Tax Review, will require British tax havens to make similar disclosures about UK account holders to UK tax authorities.

"It's a complete bombshell for these places," Richard Murphy, a tax expert who has seen the draft plan, told the Observer. "Some people will try to flee, but this is going to change the whole of the offshore market."

He explained that the draft plan amounted to the UK using US legislation to give tax havens an ultimatum: "It's either they give the UK the same data that they want to give the US or the UK won't pass their laws to let data flow to the US."

The ultimatum is crucial, Murphy suggested. If the UK refuses to pass the laws, its tax havens "might just as well shut up shop since there would be almost no banks or other institutions willing to locate there".

News of the plans is likely to surprise many tax experts. This month, responding to an international development committee report, the government publicly rejected the need for a UK version of Fatca.

Joseph Stead, Christian Aid's senior adviser on economic justice, said that if the draft was implemented it "would be the beginning of the end for tax haven secrecy".

However, he said it was vital that it should not just be the UK which obtains full information disclosure from its tax havens: "We should ensure that other countries get it too, so they can catch up with people and companies hiding money. Otherwise there will be tax haven secrecy for some countries and not others.

"Poor countries lose billions every year to tax dodging and tax havens are often involved. We hope the UK government will use the G8 meeting it is hosting next year to agree action to ensure a global end to tax haven secrecy."

The Treasury declined to comment but confirmed to the Review that it was assisting the UK's crown dependencies and overseas territories to produce their response to Fatca.

However, former Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Lord Oakeshott was sceptical about whether the plan could succeed. "Tax havens really coming clean are as likely as a snowy Christmas day in the Cayman Islands," he said.

Last night the Labour shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, outlined a five-point plan for tackling tax avoidance. In an article for the Huffington Post, Balls writes: "We urgently need to look at how UK tax laws can be made stronger so as to properly deter tax avoidance."

Offshore Secrets

Related Articles:

Offshore secrets revealed: the shadowy side of a booming industry

$21tn: hoard hidden from taxman by global elite

Jersey puts stop to vulture funds circling its courts

Global campaign to decriminalise homosexuality to kick off in Belize court

Lord Goldsmith involved in bid to overturn law in country which is first of 80-plus targeted by new rights group Human Dignity Trust 

guardian.co.uk, Owen Bowcott, legal affairs correspondent, Wednesday 16 November 2011

Gay rights lawyer Alice Nkom is campaigning to decriminalise homosexuality
 in Cameroon, which is one of 46 Commonwealth states to still outlaw same-sex
relations. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian

A new British legal rights group will this week kick off a global campaign to decriminalise homosexuality in scores of countries across the world when it embarks on a first test case in the courts of Belize.

The Human Dignity Trust (HDT), which launched its campaign in London on Thursday, is targeting the 80-odd states where consensual sexual activity between adults of the same gender is outlawed. More than half are Commonwealth countries which inherited their regulations from British colonial rule. In some like Uganda, Kenya, Cameroon and Ghana the laws are seen by some as justification for violent attacks on gay and lesbian people.

Lord Goldsmith, the former attorney general, will be among the team of lawyers fighting to overturn section 53 of Belize's criminal code, which enacts that: "Every person who has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any person or animal shall be liable to imprisonment for 10 years."

The hearing, scheduled to begin on 5 December, has been brought by the gay Belizean activist Caleb Orozco. It is shaping up to be a constitutional legal clash with international political dimensions.

Belize's evangelical, Anglican and Catholic churches have united to oppose the application. They are expected to set out their objections in a pre-hearing review on Friday and seek to introduce evidence that homosexuality can be "cured".

In a joint statement earlier this summer, the churches in Belize declared: "In every country that has granted a new 'right' to homosexual behaviour, activists have promoted and steadily expanded this 'right' to trump universally recognised rights to religious freedom and expression."

Announcing that they have also retained a high-powered legal team, the Catholic bishop Dorick Wright, the Anglican bishop Philip Wright and the evangelical Rev Eugene Crawford said: "The people of Belize will not surrender our constitution, our moral foundations, and our way of life to predatory foreign interests."

The courtroom battle in Belize is the first in the HDT campaign. Challenges to homophobic laws in Northern Cyprus and Jamaica, where the so-called "anti-sodomy law" is no longer actively enforced, should be lodged before Christmas. Cases in other states will follow in the new year.

Criminalising homosexuality is illegal under international law, according to Jonathan Cooper, a human rights barrister who is the trust's chief executive. Among the legal authorities establishing that precedent is a 1994 ruling by the UN's human rights committee based on a case in Australia.

"But more than 80 countries, 42 of which are in the Commonwealth, have laws that criminalise homosexuality," he said. "Our campaign has nothing to do with gay marriage; human rights law has nothing to say on gay marriage.

"The laws that criminalise homosexuality in most of the Commonwealth countries are the legacy of British colonial rule. The French, Dutch and Spanish didn't leave [such an inheritance]. By the time the UK decriminalised, most of those states were independent.

"We will work through local lawyers and support them in bringing challenges. We will make sure they get all the resources they need. Gay people could be killed if we mishandle these cases."

Goldsmith and Godfrey Smith, a onetime attorney-general of Belize, are acting as leading counsel in the first challenge. Some of the cases could end up in British courts if they are appealed up to the privy council in London, which works alongside the supreme court, and still acts as the final appellate court for many Commonwealth states.

"We hope there will be a domino effect eventually," Cooper added, "with countries recognising [that they will lose the test cases] and saying 'Why don't we just decriminalise?'"

The Foreign Office has also become more active in combatting laws that criminalise homosexuality. In an address during Commonwealth summit in Australia last month, the foreign secretary, William Hague, said: "The UK would like to see the Commonwealth do more to promote the rights of its lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens. It is wrong in our view that these groups continue to suffer persecution, violence and discrimination within the Commonwealth and that many members still have laws criminalising homosexuality."

In its founding statement, the HDT says: "Criminalisation causes misery to all of those affected, compromising people's identity through illegality. It also reduces human beings to their sexual acts.

"We hope to bring approximately five to 10 cases globally each year. Where necessary we will fund cases. In the event of a prosecution, we can assist lawyers in preparing a defence challenging those laws. If appropriate, we may bring cases in our own name."

The trust is chaired by Tim Otty QC, a human rights specialist. Its patrons include the Liberal Democrat Lord Lester, Lord Woolf, the former lord chief justice, Sir Shridath Ramphal, the former secretary general of the Commonwealth, Soli J Sorabjee, the former attorney general for India, and Arthur Chaskalson, the former chief justice of South Africa.

Related Articles:

Brazil Grants Residency Based On Same-sex Marriage

U.N. passes 'historic' gay rights resolution

Majority Dutch MPs: civil servants should marry gay couples

About the Challenges of Being a Gay Man – Oct 23, 2010 (Saint Germain channelled by Alexandra Mahlimay and Dan Bennack) - “You see, your Soul and Creator are not concerned with any perspective you have that contradicts the reality of your Divinity – whether this be your gender, your sexual preference, your nationality – or your race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, or anything else.”

"The Akashic System" – Jul 17, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Religion, The Humanization of God, Benevolent Design, DNA, Akashic Circle, (Old) Souls, Gaia, Indigenous People, Talents, Reincarnation, Genders, Gender Switches, In “between” Gender Change, Gender Confusion, Shift of Human Consciousness, Global Unity,..... etc.)  - (Text version)  New !