Camouflage law ‘needs changing’

MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS and Information Wilfred Abrahams thinks the law that makes the wearing of all camouflage illegal needs changing.

He is certain that this can be done in a way that does not stop the original intention of the measure, which is preventing individuals from impersonating members of the armed forces or causing confusion by wearing similar clothing.

Abrahams is also advising Barbadians who have a problem with this and other “outdated” legislation to communicate this to the Law Reform Commission so that the provisions can be modernised.

He was speaking in the House of Assembly yesterday during debate on the Law Revision and Law Reform (Amendment) Bill, 2024.

Bikini

The minister stressed the importance of the Law Reform Commission, stating that the Chief Parliamentary Counsel’s Office “is swamped [and] it definitely does not have time to go back through and modernise old legislation”.

“If I use a case in point, this is not the position of the Government, this is my position. We have in our Customs Act that. . . it is illegal to possess and to wear the disruptive pattern camouflage. If ever there was a piece of legislation that needed changing it was that,” the representative for Christ Church East said.

“Why? Because I was present on a beach when I saw a young lady in a pink and grey camouflage bikini, . . . and a police officer went up to the lady, advised her that what she was wearing was illegal, verified that she was staying at Accra Hotel which was right behind her, and told her that she needed to go and change her bikini, otherwise she could be arrested and charged.

“Now I could understand . . . at the time that legislation was passed, and I believe that was around the time of the Grenada situation where there were a lot of armed forces in Barbados all at the same time. So you didn’t want any confusion with the armed forces, that’s the substance of the legislation, that was the intent, you didn’t want anybody impersonating a member of the armed forces,” he added.

Abrahams submitted that this “cannot possibly extend to the fashion that camouflage is now, that cannot possibly extend to a camouflage party dress, it definitely cannot extend to a camouflage Speedo”. (SC)