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Haiti
Ratifies Revised Treaty Of Chaguaramas
(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown,
Guyana) February 11, 2008: The Chairman of the Caribbean
Community (CARICOM) Council of Ministers the Honourable
Brent Symonette, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of
Foreign Affairs of The Bahamas received the official
notification that Haiti had ratified the Revised Treaty of
Chaguaramas from the Honourable Jean Renard Clerisme
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Haiti during the 21st Meeting
of the Community Council held in Barbados on Friday 8
February.
In accepting the document from the Chairman, CARICOM
Secretary-General His Excellency Edwin Carrington expressed
his delight and quipped “it has been a long time in coming.”
Haiti’s Parliament had approved the Revised Treaty last
October and the final act in Haiti’s internal procedures for
ratification was for this approval to be gazetted in the
Official Monitor. This was completed earlier this week.
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The Council considered the arrangements for the follow-up to
the 2007 Conference on the Caribbean, in particular the
proposed series of activities to be held in New York in June
2008 during Caribbean American Heritage Month. The Bureau of
the Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR)
under the Chairmanship of Antigua and Barbuda, with the
support of the CARICOM Secretariat and the Consuls General
in New York, will spearhead the arrangements for the June
2008 activities – an important component of which will be
the meeting between CARICOM Heads of Government and
Congressman Charles Rangel, Chairman of the Ways and Means
Committee of the US House of Representatives. The COFCOR
Bureau also includes Grenada, incoming Chair and Belize
outgoing Chair.
The first Conference was held in June 2007 in an initiative
to strengthen the relations between CARICOM and the United
States and has resulted in CARICOM being invited to a
Congressional hearing on deportees and to an investigation
by the United States International Trade Commission
specifically on the trade between CARICOM and the USA.
The Community Council, at the meeting held at the Accra
Beach Hotel, approved the work programme and budget of the
CARICOM Secretariat and welcomed a report by the
Secretary-General His Excellency Edwin Carrington on the
first meeting between the CARICOM Secretariat and other
regional institutions which took place in Georgetown, Guyana
last October. The Council noted the possibilities for
greater co-operation and co-ordination among the
institutions which regular interaction could bring.
The Council also approved the arrangements for the 19th
Inter-sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of
Government including the draft agenda now to be submitted
for the consideration of Heads of Government. The Inter-Sessional
Meeting is scheduled to be held in The Bahamas on 7-8 March.
The Inter-Sessional meeting will be preceded by meetings of
the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) on 5
March and the Council for Finance and Planning (COFAP) on 6
March both in The Bahamas.
As part of their exhaustive agenda, the Ministers also
received an update on the plans for the Caribbean Festival
of the Arts (CARIFESTA X) from Guyana, the hosts of the
Festival. The Festival is scheduled to be held in Guyana
from 22-31 August 2008.
