Guyana is a parliamentary democracy with a robust civil society. However, electoral politics have often become entangled with ethnic tensions, and the intimidation of journalists, in many cases by the government, has affected press freedom in recent years. Crime, police brutality and corruption, and discrimination against Indigenous and LGBT+ people remain significant problems, though the government has made efforts to protect women, children, and workers from violence and exploitation. The development of offshore oil reserves has made anticorruption reforms more urgent.

• In June, US authorities imposed sanctions on two prominent Guyanese businessmen and a senior government ministry official for their alleged involvement in a corrupt scheme to evade taxes and smuggle gold out of the country. The case was reportedly linked to a broader scandal in July involving alleged corruption, bribery, and money laundering in the senior ranks of the police force. US-based online anticorruption activist Melissa Atwell, who helped to publicize the scandal, later accused the government of harassing her in September, after police raided her mother and grandmother’s home in a purported search for drugs; the attorney general filed a defamation suit against her in November.
• In July, the National Assembly adopted the Family Violence Act, which expanded the definitions of offenses to include emotional and psychological abuse, extended protection to all family members rather than intimate partners only, strengthened penalties and accountability for perpetrators, and reduced police officers’ discretion in pursuing cases. The new law also introduced civil litigation as a means of redress alongside criminal charges, and provided additional support for victims.
• Separately in July, the ruling People’s Progressive Party secured passage of legislation that would effectively give government appointees greater influence on the governing council of the University of Guyana, the country’s only public university. The law increased the number of seats on the council from 26 to 32, decreased nominations by the university chancellor from 6 to 4, increased those by the education minister from 3 to 6, and added other new members nominated by various sectors of society.
• The Judicial Service Commission, which had been reconstituted in 2023 after a lengthy dormancy, worked to fill the resulting accumulation of judicial vacancies during the year. A group of 10 new judges were approved in June. Separately, in a ruling that demonstrated judicial independence, a court found in April that an ongoing strike by teachers over salaries was legal; the strike continued from February until June, when the two sides reached an agreement, but civil society groups had criticized the government during the labor action for seeking to overturn the court ruling, moving to deduct pay from strikers, and attempting to circumvent their union by negotiating directly with teachers, among other hostile tactics.
• Following passage of the Combating Trafficking of Persons Act of 2023, which strengthened penalties for sex and labor trafficking and increased protections for children, the government reportedly built a shelter for child migrants, conducted training programs, and referred more victims to services. However, enforcement efforts remained inadequate with respect to Chinese, Cuban, and Haitian migrant workers, as well as in the interior regions of the country.

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For additional background information, see last year’s full report.