Fathers' rights, bullying of workers, race, fear of speaking out, and the high cost of access to the courts dominated a public meeting on human rights in Hamilton on Monday night.

Around 40 people turned up to voice their concerns to two consultants who are compiling a report on the state of human rights in Bermuda for the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).

Dr. Dessima Williams and Geraldine Terry promised after the meeting in Hamilton Cathedral Hall that the concerns would be taken back to London.

The FCO is visiting all overseas territories to to get an overview of human rights legislation in the colonies.

Panel member Dr. Roosevelt Brown said bad laws were drafted in Bermuda in 1969 which reflected the times, where it was a criminal offence to make a racist comment, but if you were discriminated against in areas of employment or housing, it was a civil matter.

Fellow panellist, lawyer Elizabeth Christopher said one reason Bermudians were afraid to speak out about issues was because banks could call in their mortgages.

"A standard clause in the mortgage says the mortgage can be called in just by giving notice. It is no surprise that there is still this climate about whether people speak out," she said.

"Look at the attention (you get) if you speak out about race, you get marginalised. Women, if they are sexually harassed and prosecute in the courts, they are ridiculed by lawyers and sometimes ridiculed by the magistrate. Who is prepared to undergo critical scrutiny?"

She suggested cases brought before the Human Rights Commission (HRC) should be recorded like law reports and the results widely disseminated.

Corey Butterfield, a spokesman for businessman Harold Darrell, who is involved in a legal battle with Bank of Bermuda over alleged breach of confidence and the Human Rights Commission, spoke of how Home Affairs Minister Terry Lister had "improperly dismissed" the case.

He said Mr. Darrell's right to a fair hearing had been violated and he questioned the role of ministers interfering in these cases. He asked how a citizen's human rights can be protected from political interference.

Dr. Williams said every country has its own model of human rights, but "all countries must ensure there isn't a culture of impunity, so all parties are responsible and no one is above the law, and the law must function in a way that the law is seen to be fair".

Mr. Darrell complained that you needed money to fight the "corrupt" system and its political interference, and he questioned how ordinary people could get justice.

"I've been able to afford this, but what is the ordinary person supposed to do?" he said. "The minister's interference has cost me more than $100,000, not to mention the cost of fighting the bank, but how is the ordinary guy to fight this? The human rights system needs to be affordable."

Alvin Goulbourne of the Fathers' Resource Centre criticised the courts for their "knee-jerk response" in giving children to mothers in divorce and custody cases.

And Eddie Fisher, the president of Childwatch, warned that men in Bermuda are "bemused, angry, frustrated and disillusioned because they want to be part of their child's life".

"Men who call me are so downtrodden by the system that only sees the mother as the parent (and the father) can only interact by visiting their child at their lunch hour. That's a national disgrace and it needs to end not tomorrow, but right here tonight."

And he asked how a mother can authorise a major operation on a child without even consulting the father. And why the mother should be allowed to change the child's school without consultation, while charging the father for the fees.

Mr. Fisher said he had been to HRC and was told the organisation could look into his case if it was about race or him not getting job because of his height, but that it could not look at his human rights being violated over being denied equal access to his child.

Dean Ming said there is no recourse for citizens in Bermuda if their rights have been violated by judges.

He added: "There is a right to be treated fairly when you get a divorce. In Bermuda, if you get a divorce, the lady has more rights. That violates human rights."

Dr. Eva Hodgson urged the two consultants to press the UK Government to urge the Bermuda government to address the "long-term impact racism has had on the psychology of black people".

"As a result, black people do mean and vindictive things to each other because they don't like themselves and don't like each other.

"Since this (PLP) Government has been there, it has become more obvious how cruelly black people can deal with black people."

She said racism had scarred black people so much that they hated white people and didn't care who governed them as long they were black.

And she claimed that both black and white judges treated black defendants worse than they did white defendants.