Ascension Island is situated in the South Atlantic and has a population of around 880, the majority of whom are from St Helena. Everyone on the island is either working there or are family members of people working on the island.
In September 2009, a new Constitution came into force and for the first time, introduced a chapter on individual rights. This chapter on rights includes most of the rights found in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The Constitution is still shared with St Helena and Tristan da Cunha but Ascension Island’s status has been changed from that of a dependency of St Helena to being in partnership with St Helena and Tristan da Cunha (the other Islands which make up this one territory).
In addition to the ICCPR and ECHR applying in the Ascension, other human rights treaties have been extended to it; namely the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Convention against Torture (CAT) and Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD. In addition to this, individuals have been given the right to bring cases to the European Court of Human Rights where no other remedy exists on Ascension Island.
Project activities 2008-2010
An initial 4 day of human rights awareness training programme was delivered to approximately 23 participants in January 2010. This included participants from 9 government offices and public agencies. A second round of human rights awareness training is planned for June 2011. The project hopes to generate interest in developing a national human rights action plan for the Ascension Island during the human rights training programme.
Under the technical assistance facility, the project provided a chart of corresponding rights in the ECHR and ICCPR to those found in the Constitution in response to a request from a former Island Council member. The chart has been modified for use in other territories. The project also provided the Public Solicitor (based on St Helena) with assistance in finding a lawyer to give initial pro-bono advice on a human rights case.
The project liaises with the Administrator. He can be contacted by email aig.enquiries@ascension.gov.ac.