The conference was broken down into segments. There was the 3rd Commonwealth Women’s Parliamentarians Conference where the likes of Dominica’s Alix Boyd-Knights spoke on strategies for attracting more women to politics while Bermuda’s Dame Jennifer Smith shared her thoughts on mentoring young women formally and informally to enter the political arena. Antigua and Barbuda’s Gisele Isaac-Arindell did her part by presenting how to make legislatures genderless to lift the barriers that existed previously. Wrapping up the conference was Trinidad’s Prime Minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar who spoke on the role of women parliamentarians in the modern Caribbean Parliament.
Following this conference were several presentations by Caribbean Islands. St Lucia and the Cayman Islands presented on Parliament as an Autonomous Body, separation from the Executive Branch of Government. Jamaica and the British Virgin Islands addressed Advancing our democracies through constitutional reform: Fixed term for a Prime Minister, Concept of Recall, Concept of Referenda. Bermuda and Trinidad and Tobago tackled Making the Legislature more accessible and interactive for citizens: How to make this possible.
Antigua and Barbuda along with Anguilla spoke on Providing a platform for innovative leadership within the parliamentary system while Montserrat and Trinidad and Tobago presented Effective Measures of ensuring accountability and transparency in government: best practices for smaller Legislatures.
Grenada and Dominica answered the question of Is there a role for regional Parliaments in solving our common problem of crime and youth violence? Jamaica and Barbados ended the two day session with, The most effective use of a committee system in small Legislatures: can it work?
With those two segments out of the way, on Wednesday July 28, the seventh Regional Youth Parliament debate took place at the Red House in Port of Spain. The topic discussed was that regional governments should take immediate steps to institute a National Youth Crime Service Unit based in the ministry that addresses matters on national security. The debate was heated and entertaining with regional delegates sitting in and supporting their respective territory. Trinidad’s Speaker of the House of Representatives, Wade Mark was delighted at the turn out and quality of arguments by the region’s youth.
See our next issue for photos, behind the scenes news and coverage of the various
