Human Rights in the Cayman Islands

Whilst the Cayman Islands is one of the few jurisdictions in the world that does not enshrine at least some human rights in its constitution – a fundamental fact that the Cayman Islands Human Rights Committee is actively seeking to alter – this does not mean that human rights are alien to the Cayman Islands.

The long existence of representative government in the Cayman Islands, along with a free and independent media and a legal system, which recognizes individual liberty as one of its key features, all serve to demonstrate how Caymanian society embodies the ideals of human rights in spite of the absence of fundamental rights in the constitution.

The principles that underpin human rights are in fact evident throughout the history of the Cayman Islands and remain to this day, among the core values traditionally upheld by the people of Cayman. As is characteristic in any progressive democratic society, citizens of the Cayman Islands freely expect the rights to association and expression; to liberty and privacy; to religious freedom and a fair trial; and perhaps most fundamental of all, the right to life itself.