CARICOM Secretary-General Ambassador Irwin LaRocque met with officials of the Commonwealth Secretariat  on Friday 20 March 2015, in Guyana as part of the review by the Commonwealth of its ongoing legislative drafting and law revision assistance to the region.

The Commonwealth team, comprising Mr Steven Malby, Head of Law Development, Rule of Law Division and Mrs Pauline Campbell, Adviser, Technical Assistance Unit, also met with the Office of the General Counsel and the experts placed by the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation (CFTC) in the CARICOM Secretariat.

The Commonwealth has a long history of providing legislative drafting assistance to Member countries, which assistance has been pivotal to the development of law and capacity building in CARICOM countries. Since 2008, CFTC has placed legislative drafting and law revision experts at  the CARICOM Secretariat.  These experts have supported the development of model legislation for the Community and have drafted legislation for CARICOM Member countries. The programme has also resulted in the laws of three Member States being revised, with three more law revision exercises currently in progress.

Both the Secretary-General and the representatives of the Commonwealth acknowledged the achievements of the programme and the excellent work of the CFTC experts, who have participated in numerous training and mentorship exercises throughout the region to build the capacity of Member States in the areas of law revision and legislative drafting.

The Secretary-General underscored the need for the continuation of such capacity building programmes, and highlighted the several areas of ongoing cooperation between CARICOM and the Commonwealth, particularly in relation to the post-2015 development agenda, such as financing for development and other areas of concern for Small Island Developing States [(SIDS)].