13 January 2006
U.N. Meeting to Discuss Special Concerns of Caribbean Nations
Trinidad and Tobago hosts January 16-17 environmental policy meeting
Washington -- A Western Hemispheric body of the United Nations will host a January 16-17 environmental policy meeting in Trinidad and Tobago, focusing on ways to promote sustainable development in the nations of the Caribbean and other small island states worldwide.
In a January 13 statement, the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) said the meeting will examine ways to implement what is called the Mauritius Strategy for sustainable development in the small island states.
That strategy evolved from a January 2005 U.N. meeting held in Port Louis, Mauritius. At that meeting, the global community said it was committed to helping small island nations in the Caribbean and elsewhere deal with their special concerns, such as vulnerabilities to natural and environmental disasters, exemplified by the December 2005 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people. (See related article.)
Among the 50 participants expected at the meeting in Trinidad and Tobago's capital city of Port of Spain are Carlyle Corbin, the U.S. Virgin Islands' minister of state for external affairs, and ECLAC Executive Secretary José Luis Machinea. Another participant is Knowlson Gift, Trinidad and Tobago's foreign affairs minister.
The United Nations said the Mauritius Strategy recognizes that "most small-island developing states, as a result of their smallness, and persistent structural disadvantages and vulnerabilities, face specific difficulties in integrating into the global economy." The strategy also recognizes the importance of moving small-island developing states more fully into in the deliberations and decision-making of the World Trade Organization."
The United States and the other nations involved in the Summit of the Americas process have expressed their support for addressing the special concerns of the small island states. According to the Summit of the Americas' Plan of Action, these small states say that in addition to environmental vulnerability, threats to their security include illicit drug trafficking, the illegal trade in arms, increasing levels of crime and corruption, the transportation of nuclear waste and economic vulnerability -- particularly in relation to trade, health threats such as HIV/AIDS and increased levels of poverty.
The Summit of the Americas' Plan of Action is available on the State Department Web site.
The Port of Spain meeting, formally called the 21st Session of the Caribbean Development and Cooperation Committee, also will discuss such topics as "Prospects for Partnership in Addressing Caribbean Development Challenges" and "Achieving the [U.N.] Millennium Development Goals in the Caribbean." Those eight goals range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015. More information on the goals is available on the U.N. Web site.
The Caribbean development committee is an ECLAC subregional body with 23 members. It includes the governments of the Dominican Republic, the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, and the 15 Caribbean countries that form the group known as Caricom (Caribbean Community). The Caribbean development committee meets once every two years.
Participants at the Port of Spain event will report their conclusions at a March 20-24 ECLAC meeting in Montevideo, Uruguay.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
