Miss
Tenesha
Myrie

Job title: 
Lecturer
Education: 
B.A. (UWI), LL.B (UWI), MPP (Oxford)
Professional Affiliation: 
Attorney-at-Law
Telephone: 
876-927-1855
Email: 
tenesha.myrie02@uwimona.edu.jm

Staff Profile Tabs

Overview

Tenesha Myrie ’08, teaches Law and Legal Systems and Administrative Law. She is a Chevening Scholar (2015). Prior to joining MonaLaw she practised commercial, corporate and property law at the law firm, Rattray Patterson Rattray and she also worked as a legal fellow at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Research Interests: 
Constitutional and Administrative Law
Human Rights
Medical Law
Public Policy
Courses : 
Administrative Law
Family Law I
Profile

Ms Myrie’s research and policy work focus on gender equality, human rights and improving access to justice for vulnerable groups. She has produced technical reports for various international, regional, and civil society organizations in the areas of gender based violence, sexual and reproductive rights, HIV and the law, and child rights.

In 2016, Myrie developed a legal literacy resource manual for persons living with and affected by HIV in Jamaica. She produced an extensive report for UNWomen on laws governing gender based violence in the English speaking Caribbean. As a consultant to UNWomen, and in collaboration with 10 civil society organisations, she prepared submissions in 2014 for strengthening legal protections from sexual violence to the Joint Select Committee of Parliament appointed to review Jamaica’s Sexual Offences Act 2009.

Myrie has also provided inputs for the World Bank, Women, Business and the Law report in respect of how Jamaica’s property and business laws affect women’s economic opportunities.

She is one of the coordinators of the international conference, “Challenging Fundamentalisms? Ideology, Public Policy, Law and Gender Equality” organised by the Oxford Human Rights Hub, Oxford University; Getulio Vargas Foundation School of Law, Brazil; School of Law University of Witswaterand, South Africa and Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia hosted at MonaLaw, February 2019.

Research

Ms. Myrie conducted a Legal Environment Assessment (‘LEA’) for the HIV and AIDS response in Trinidad and Tobago over a three month period in 2018. The LEA contributes to ongoing efforts across the region to address the HIV epidemic and reduce the impact of HIV on those most vulnerable. This assessment reveals that despite the State’s efforts, there are major deficiencies in the State’s response. People living with HIV (PLHIV) and Key Populations are negatively impacted by laws, policies, and practices which have the effect of inhibiting equality in private and public life.

PLHIV and Key Populations face unique challenges, especially regarding health care, within the context of employment, and in securing access to justice. These challenges are often unresolved due to ineffective or nonexistent reporting, redress, and enforcement mechanisms, as well as by discriminatory laws.

The LEA provides a base from which the State can and strengthen existing laws, policies, and practices and create additional reporting, enforcement, and redress mechanisms to address rights violations and policy breaches. The LEA will also provide the State with an opportunity to develop monitoring and evaluation mechanisms on the revision and implementation of current policies, and the gains which are being made towards legal reform. It also provides a tool for the State to sensitise the public on the legal and human rights issues which arise within the context of HIV and AIDS, and the rationale for removing the legal and policy-related barriers which contribute to the marginalization of PLHIV and Key Populations.