More than 100 people have signed a petition circulated by the Centre for Justice calling for change to proposed amendments to the Human Rights Act.Those signatures came in the space of less than 24 hours. The advocacy group’s concerns are now being considered as a matter of priority by Attorney General Mark Pettingill, who has read the group’s submissions.“I will make a decision on whether a further simple amendment is required and advise the Minister accordingly. This is a historic legislative matter and we wish to ensure that there is no valid legal issue to cause concern. I anticipate the amendment will be debated in Parliament on June 14th as planned,” said Mr Pettingill.The Centre’s advocate Venous Memari addressed the topic ‘Just how just is our Criminal Justice System’ yesterday as part of a lunchtime weekly lecture series at the Bermuda National Gallery. She cited concerns raised by section 315F of the Criminal Code Act 1907 and cautions under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 2006.The Centre’s mandate is to promote and protect the rule of law, human rights and civil liberties in Bermuda. The lecture series is a collaboration between the gallery and CURB.Ms Memari was asked by CURB to talk about how Bermuda’s black community is impacted by Bermuda’s criminal justice system. She discussed three pieces of legislation but focused first on the stop and search powers granted to police under section 315F.This section authorises “any police officer in uniform to stop and search any person or vehicle, driver and passenger alike for offensive weapons and dangerous instruments”.She held the view that it is unconstitutional. “It [the Constitution] guarantees that we will not be subjected to a search of our person or our property without our consent, or unless the search is authorised by the authority of law.“Our right to privacy guaranteed by Section 7 of the Constitution is essentially aimed at protecting us from arbitrary arrests. In other words, in legal terms, is it necessary and is it proportionate to those legitimate aims,” she said.She maintained that it “is not proportionate to the interests of public safety” because it gives police the right to stop and search anyone without probable cause. And in Bermuda she said that translates into unintended consequences for the black community, most notably, young black males.“The main difficulty that we have is not only is it necessary for the police officer to demonstrate the existence of any reasonable suspicion, he’s not required even subjectively to suspect anything about the person or vehicle stopped and searched. In other words, provided that the person is stopped for the purpose of search for such articles, the police officer does not even have to have grounds for suspecting the presence of such articles on the person.“In the absence of any obligation on the part of the officer to show a reasonable suspicion it is impossible to prove that the power was improperly exercised,” said Ms Memari.Lynne Winfield, of CURB, noted that the statistics evaluated in 2011 showed that over 17,500 people were stopped by police.“When you consider that 40,000 people in Bermuda are adults that’s almost half the population. Can you imagine what would happen in the US or the UK if almost 50 percent of the population was stopped and searched?“Understanding that out of the 17,500 people many were stopped multiple times so it’s not exactly 50 percent of the population. It means that out of those people some were being stopped nine or ten times because they live in the back of town area.“They’ve got a job, they go to work everyday, they’re citizens who don’t do any wrong, yet because they live in that area they are penalised more than people who live in other areas. I think there is a very real sense that it’s being very much abused,” she said.She noted however that the numbers have dropped dramatically in recent years. Ms Memari stressed that it was not their intention to “demonise the police or any individual police officer”.“They serve a very important purpose in maintaining law and order. The problem that we have is the system we come up with to ensure that we maintain law and order.Ms Memari concluded: “We have also fought for hundreds of years to get to where we are, so it’s the safeguards that we are trying to protect, it’s our civil liberties.”The Centre for Justice petition is accessible online at http://www.justice.bm/campaigns-law-reform/petitions/human-rights-act-2013.