A landmark ruling from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) found that the rights of the Indigenous people living in Guyana's Isseneru were violated. Guyana’s government is tasked with informing the rights commission of the measures it intends to adopt to provide recourse to the villagers in about two months’ time. (Newsroom Guyana)
“The reparations must include measures of compensation, satisfaction and any other which are deemed appropriate in accordance with the Inter-American Standards including the provision of any required health care services to community members affected by environmental pollution,” the IACHR recommended in its report. (Stabroek News)
Isseneru residents plan to propose compensatory solutions to the government. The Isseneru Village Council said it hopes to meet with President Irfaan Ali and members of government to discuss solutions. (Newsroom Guyana)
Human Rights
- At least eight inmates have died in a Haitian prison that ran out of food two months ago. Hunger and oppressive heat in the overcrowded penitentiary contributed to the inmates’ deaths, reports the Associated Press. The United Nations Security Council released a report last week saying 54 prison deaths related to malnutrition were documented in Haiti between January and April alone.
- Conditions at Haiti’s garment factories are akin to prison camps, with non-existent labour rights and where sexual abuse is rife, according to activists. About 60,000 Haitians work in the country’s 41 factories, producing clothes for more than 60 American companies. Female garment factory workers say that to get a job women are expected to have sex with a male manager, reports the Guardian.
- Ten years after international luminaries inaugurated Caracol Industrial Park in Haiti, thousands of people displaced from the project are still waiting for compensation. It’s just part of how many international efforts to rebuild Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake have backfired, condemning a generation of children to poverty and causing irreversible damage to their families’ livelihoods, reports Buzzfeed.
- A court in Paris found the French government guilty of wrongful negligence involving the former use of a banned pesticide in the French Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique but denied compensation to those affected, reports the Associated Press.
- The Covid-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected Afro-Caribbean and Latin-American people and their communities, according to a new ECLAC report that cites violation of many of their rights and increasing inequality and the incidence of racism and discrimination.
Climate Justice and Energy
- Climate negotiators came together last week at the Commonwealth People's Forum in Rwanda to discuss how the coalition of 54 Commonwealth member states can advance climate justice ahead of COP27. In particular, advocates proposed a World Environment Court, a new global dispute resolution mechanism to arbitrate negotiations over climate loss and damage funding. (Jamaica Gleaner)
- The persisting problems facing Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to develop, sustain and locally retain capacity indicates that business-as-usual approaches to capacity building are not sufficient to meet the needs of SIDS to secure a thriving future as the Ocean undergoes climate change-related change, according to the Alliance of Small Island States.
- A series of visualizations by Florent Lavergne shows how rising sea levels could impact countries in terms of flood risk by the year 2100. (Visual Capitalist)
- Ideological bias and structural inequality prevent the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from exploring possibilities for fundamental transformation, argue Yamina Saheb, Kai Kuhnhenn, Juliane Schumacher at the Rosa Luxemburg Siftung site.
- The impacts of global warming will change the identity of Bonaire, warns Greenpeace, in a call for the Dutch government to take action. Sea level rise, the vanishing coral, extreme droughts, storms: the island will be facing many challenges.
- A U.S. federal court of appeals ruled that the liquefied natural gas import terminal New Fortress Energy constructed without permits in Puerto Rico should have first been reviewed by the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. New Fortress must now submit an after-the-fact application to obtain a permit for the terminal. That application process will finally allow the neighboring communities and the Puerto Rican public a meaningful opportunity to challenge the lack of safety and environmental considerations at the site, according to Earth Justice.
Regional Relations
- Haiti and Jamaica are among the group of countries that recognized Juan Guaidó as Venezuela's legitimate leader, a stance they should reverse, argues Sir Ronald Sanders. He notes that 7 of the 13 countries in the Western Hemisphere, which originally joined the US and Canada in aggressively supporting the notion that Guaidó was in charge of Venezuela, have now abandoned that position and reverted to dealing with President Nicolás Maduro's government.
- Baroness Patricia Scotland narrowly defeated challenger Jamaican Foreign Minister Kamina Johnson Smitt to remain Commonwealth Secretary General in a vote last week. The Dominica-born lawyer has been secretary-general of the Commonwealth since 2016, reports Reuters. (See also Caribbean National Weekly)
History and Decolonization
- Britain's royals paid tribute to the 'Windrush generation' last week at the unveiling of a statue to commemorate the arrival of post-war migrants from the Caribbean. "Without you all, Britain would simply not be what it is today," Prince William, Queen Elizabeth's grandson, said at the unveiling of the National Windrush Monument at London's Waterloo Station. The statue, by Basil Watson, backed by £1m of government funding, portrays three figures – a man, woman and child – dressed in their “Sunday best” climbing a mountain of suitcases hand in hand. (Guardian)
- The homage came as the government again apologised for the migrants' recent mistreatment, after a tightening of immigration policy in recent years meant thousands were denied basic rights despite having lived in Britain for decades, and dozens were wrongly deported, reports Reuters.
- Contradictory Indianness by Atreyee Phukan shows that Indo-Caribbean writers and their reimagining of Indianness in the region must be considered in a postcolonial Caribbean aesthetics that has, from its inception, privileged inclusivity, interraciality, and resistance against Old World colonial orders. (Repeating Islands)
- Maroons in Guyane: Past, Present, and Futures, by Richard and Sally Price, reviews the history of Maroon peoples in Guyane, explains how these groups differ from one another, and analyzes their current situations in the bustling, multicultural world of this far-flung outpost of the French Republic. (Repeating Islands)
- 25 maps that illustrate the Caribbean's rich history.
Finance and Economics
- President of the African Development Bank Akinwumi A. Adesin said the Caribbean and Africa desperately need debt relief, debt restructuring and debt sustainability, speaking last week in Turks and Caicos. (Loop News)
- The European Union's changing rules and unclear methodology on back listing are putting some of the world's most vulnerable countries at a greater disadvantage, explains economist Marla Durkharan in a discussion with the Barbados Government Information Service.
Migration
- More than 140,000 Cubans were detained at U.S. borders between October last year and May. The figure surpasses the 125,000 Cubans who departed from the Port of Mariel near Havana between April and October 1980, reports the Miami Herald.
Health
- Cuba’s nationally developed Covid-19 vaccines — which are used in children starting at age 2 — become a case study of how poorer countries can invent their own shots, reports the Washington Post.
Critter Corner
- Gigantic bacteria 50 times larger than any bacterial species previously known to science, dubbed Thiomargarita magnifica, have been discovered in a Guadeloupe mangrove swamp. (Financial Times, New York Times)
Events
- 29 June -- Climate Action Global Youth Accelerator Launch Webinar -- Barbados Environmental Conservation Trust -- Register Here
Opportunities
- Creativity meets Adaptation Competition -- Prepare a piece using the Theme “What does Climate Adaptation mean to YOU?” (Art, Writing and Video Competition) -- Caribbean Climate Network -- Competition open to July 5
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