DRAFT Universal Hair Exemption Letter TO: United ... - RasTa Ites

eliefs. The Full Court held that the regulation infringed on the plaintiff's beliefs,
and that the same result could be achieved if the plaintiff were to pull his hair
back for the photograph instead of being compelled to cut off his dreadlocks.
Furthermore, it is of some significance that in British prisons Rastafarians are
respected as a religious sect and are permitted to keep their dreadlocks. See
Home Office Circular Instruction No 2 of 1983; and, generally, Directory and
Guide on Religious Practices in Her Majesty's Prison Service, 1988;
Discrimination: The Limits of Law edited by Hepple and Szyszczak at 183.
Accepting the status of Rastafarianism as a religion in the wide and nontechnical
sense referred to, I am satisfied that the applicant's manifestation of his
religion by the wearing of dreadlocks falls within the protection afforded by s
19(1) of the Constitution [of Zimbabwe]. . . ."
4. In England, Lord Lester of Herne Hill asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will recognize Rastafari as a religion for the purposes of prison
administration so as to secure the rights of religion without discrimination of prison
inmates as guaranteed by Article 9 and Article 14 of the European Convention on Human
Rights.[HL4107]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord Bassam of Brighton):
The Prison Service recognizes the culture of Rastafari by, for instance, allowing
Rastafarians to wear dreadlocks and to be provided with a special diet. The Prison
Service is seeking further information in order to establish whether it would be
appropriate to treat Rastafari as a religious as well as a cultural movement.
4. In Port of Spain, Trinidad, a Rastafarian who was beaten, fed a diet
containing meat and had his locks cut off by prison authorities won his case in
the Appeal Court on June 3 rd , 2005. Chief Justice Satnarine Sharma ordered the
case to be remitted to the High Court and judgement be entered in favor of
Damian Belfonte declaring that his constitutional right to freedom of conscience
and religious beliefs and observance had been infringed by agents of the state.
5. In St Vincent, Health Minister Joseph "Burns" Bonadie announced that he
planned to follow-up on a year-old recommendation by retired jurist Frederick
Smith that Rastas should be allowed to keep their hairstyles in prison.
IV. Prison officials who forcibly shave Rastafari inmates’ locks create
psychic trauma reminiscient of the era of the criminal Trans Atlantic Slave
Trade and violate Rastafari inmates’ human rights.
The recongition of Rastafari human rights is expanding all over the world. One of
the main issues is employers and prison officials "shaving of locks". It should be
stated that Rastafari people who wear dreadlocks do so as a covenant between
them and their God and King, Emperor Haile Selassie I, Jah Rastafari. To forcibly
shave them creates psychic trauma reminiscient of the era of the criminal Trans