Belize to establish national committee, CARICOM to establish regional commission

Single Domestic Space also to be revived in CARICOM

CARICOM Heads of Government who convened in Trinidad and Tobago this past week concluded their meeting by agreeing that follow-up action is necessary to ensure reparations for native genocide and slavery, and they agreed to form a National Reparations Committee in each member state, a statement from the CARICOM Secretariat said.

The chair of each national committee would sit on a CARICOM Reparations Commission.

Among those nations is Belize, which is joined in CARICOM by Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Leaders of those countries met from July 3-6, 2013 in Port of Spain, Trinidad, for their Thirty-Fourth Regular Meeting.

Belize was represented by Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington, his Chief Executive Officer – Alexis Rosado, and Chief Executive Officer in the Office of the Prime Minister – Audrey Wallace.

Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer described the call for reparations as an integral element of the Community’s development strategy.

He said that the legacy of slavery and colonialism in the Caribbean severely impaired the region’s development options.

“We know that our constant search and struggle for development resources is linked directly to the historical inability of our nations to accumulate wealth from the efforts of our peoples during slavery and colonialism. These nations that have been the major producers of wealth for the European slave-owning economies during the enslavement and colonial periods entered Independence with dependency straddling their economic, cultural, social and even political lives,” Spencer commented.

Spencer said that political leaders must encourage reparation agencies in the region to continue the education of Caribbean people at home and in the Diaspora.

“Our various reparation organizations must see the forging of bipartisan political support and civil society consensus for reparations as one of their main objectives,” the Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister added.

The Heads of Government of Barbados (Chair), St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Haiti, Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago will provide political oversight for the Commission.

Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the newly appointed CARICOM chair, announced at the end of the meeting that “the conference mandated the CARICOM Secretariat in collaboration with Caribbean IMPACS (Implementation Agency for Crime and Security), which is based in TT, and other relevant agencies to commence and coordinate strategies for the reintroduction of the Single Domestic Space.”

A Single Domestic Space (SDS) involving ten CARICOM Member States was established for Cricket World Cup 2007; today, there are 15 CARICOM nations.

In March, CARICOM transport ministers agreed to recommend the reintroduction of the SDS, and their report was presented at last week’s meeting, which also discussed air and sea transportation, and a possible fuel subsidy.

The leaders of CARICOM also highlighted the importance of paying keener attention to persons with disabilities and special needs.

Prime Minister of the Bahamas Perry Christie, father of an autistic child, noted that challenges are compounded by poverty, and difficulty accessing equipment and expertise.

Kamla Persad-Bissessar, CARICOM chair, said her government had an interest in opening a regional dialogue to highlight the challenges and champion the interests of persons living with disabilities.

Christie and Persad-Bissessar rallied the Community to action, “not because [Persad-Bissessar’s] granddaughter is autistic or because Prime Minister Christie’s child is autistic, but because there are so many of our children who are challenged on the basis of disabilities and who we have not given the kind of attention and care that they need.”

At last week’s Heads of Government meeting, held under the theme “Forty Years of Integration: Celebration and Renewal,” the political leaders also commemorated the 40th anniversary of the signing of the founding Treaty of Chaguaramas.