(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community buckled down to the business of the 21st Intersessional Meeting Thursday morning in Roseau, Dominica, without the fanfare of a ceremonial opening, conscious of the pressing matters before them.
(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The World Bank has indicated its support for a special multi-donor fund for the reconstruction of CARICOM Member State, Haiti.
The fund will ensure that all donors’ resources are pooled. Such an approach would help to streamline the assistance to Haiti.
(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Monday, 8 March saw the launch of the CARICOM Advocacy for Gender Justice Programme, a historic initiative for the advocacy of gender equality and justice. The two-year programme will be coordinated by Dr. Rosina Wiltshire who has been named CARICOM Advocate for Gender Justice. The mandate of the CARICOM Advocate for Gender Justice is to influence research, advocacy and policy; to lessen the perpetration of violence against women and promote justice.
(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Caribbean Community has made, “significant progress over the last decades in achieving equality between women and men”, says CARICOM Deputy Secretary-General, Amb. Lolita Applewhaite.
(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Barbadian Rosina Wiltshire has been appointed the First Caribbean Community Advocate for Gender Justice for the year 2010.
As part of her terms of reference, Dr. Rosina Wiltshire will be required to coordinate the research on Gender Based Violence (GBV) within the Caribbean Region and raise awareness of the need for further action to develop and strengthen integrated responses that will “address all social and legal sectors for the purposes of protection, provision of services; justice; and prevention.”
Subsequent to earlier information, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat has learnt that four delegates who were attending the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Caribbean Aviation Safety and Security Oversight System (CASSOS), in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, have not been accounted for.
The delegates include a national of Saint Lucia, a national of Trinidad and Tobago and two nationals of the Netherlands Antilles.
At 4:53 p.m. Eastern time on Jan. 12, 2010, an earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale struck 10 miles southwest of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, causing catastrophic damage by collapsing office buildings, roads, schools, hospitals, hotels, and thousands of flimsy houses precariously built on steep mountainsides. It was the most powerful earthquake to hit the region in over 250 years.
(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) continues to provide tangible assistance to the people of its Member State, Haiti, in the wake of the devastating earthquake which struck on 12 January.
Led by Jamaica, the sub-regional focal point for the area including Haiti under the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) arrangements had been providing assistance from 13 January 2010, about 24 hours after the catastrophic earthquake.
My colleagues and I are deeply distressed at the news of what appears to be a very powerful 7.0 earthquake that struck our neighbour Haiti this afternoon.
Our information is that the anticipated threat of a tsunami affecting The Bahamas and other neighbouring states has apparently diminished but there may be some high tides as a result of the earthquake.
We have not yet received any reliable reports of loss of life or damage to property but it is to be expected that the impact of such a powerful earthquake would be severe.