Call for founding fathers of CARICOM to receive region’s highest award

The chairman of the Eric Williams Memorial Committee, Reginald Vidale, has called for the founding fathers of the regional integration movement, Caribbean Community (CARICOM), to be given the region’s highest award posthumously as it celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Chaguaramas.

The Order of the Caribbean Community (OCC) is an award given to “Caribbean nationals whose legacy in the economic, political, social and cultural metamorphoses of Caribbean society is phenomenal.”

The award was initiated at the eighth Conference of Heads of State and Governments of Caricom in 1987 and began bestowal in 1992.

Addressing a wreath-laying ceremony marking the 42nd anniversary of the death of Trinidad & Tobago’s first prime minister, Vidale said that the award should also be given to the former leaders of Barbados, Guyana, and Jamaica.

CARICOM came into being on July 4, 1973, with the signing of the Treaty of Chaguaramas by Prime Ministers Errol Barrow for Barbados, Forbes Burnham for Guyana, Michael Manley for Jamaica and Eric Williams for Trinidad & Tobago.

Additionally, CARICOM came into effect on August 1, 1973, and subsequently the other eight Caribbean territories joined the regional community. The Bahamas became the 13th Member State of the Community on July 4, 1983, but not a member of the Common Market.

Suriname became the 14th Member State of the Caribbean Community on July 4, 1995. Haiti secured provisional membership on July 4, 1998, and on July 3, 2002, was the first French-speaking Caribbean State to become a full Member of CARICOM.

Vidale said the recently held regional symposium on crime which was attended here by several Caribbean leaders underscored the founding fathers’ vision for unity in dealing with matters affecting the Caribbean.

He said this is what they would have wanted for the Caribbean integration movement: “that CARICOM leaders come together when there is a problem to solve it collectively.”

Meanwhile, Trinidad & Tobago Prime Minister Keith Rowley has called for Trinidad & Tobago to become a full member of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) (CCJ) that was established in 2001 to replace the London-based Privy Council as the region’s final court.

Despite being headquartered in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago has only joined the Original Jurisdiction of the CCJ which also acts as an international tribunal interpreting the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.

Barbados, Dominica, Guyana, and Belize are the only four Caricom countries that are full members of the CCJ that has both an Original and Appellate Jurisdiction. -(CMC)