Assisting Caribbean States in Developing Legislation to Support International Conventions

A regional environmental law meeting was recently held in the Caribbean aimed at assisting small states to develop legislation in support of international conventions. This includes the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Climate Change Convention and the Convention on Desertification.

The seminar, titled 'Implementation of International Instruments and Policy Development', was held in Belize from 8 to 14 May 2006. It was attended by some 20 legal and environment officers from Commonwealth Caribbean countries.

Cheryl Thompson-Barrow, Head of the Law Development Section of the Commonwealth Secretariat's Legal and Constitutional Affairs Division, said the meeting emphasised the need to ensure that the international treaties that each member country is party to is legally enforceable nationally.

The participants agreed on the importance of national and regional legal arrangements to be complementary, particularly on issues such as the delimitation of maritime boundaries and continental shelves and the protection of endangered species.

The regional meeting was attended by officials from The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago. Representatives from Fiji Islands and Samoa also participated in the meeting to share their Pacific experience in environmental law and management.

A similar seminar for the Africa region was held in Mauritius last year, and further seminars are planned for the Pacific region in Fiji Islands in September this year and for the Asia region in Malaysia the following month.

CNIS - Commonwealth News and Information Service Issue 288, 7 June 2006