Prime Minister Keith Rowley will soon be assuming the chairmanship of Caricom, says Attorney General Faris Al- Rawi.
He disclosed this in Parliament yesterday while replying to UNC MP Rodney Charles’ query about a recent Inter-American Commission on Human Rights . This called for a halt to deportation of six Venezuelan children.
Rowley is expected to assume chairmanship of Caricom at the next Intersessional meeting in February 23-24 . In November Caricom had announced that T&T would host that Intersessional meeting.
Since the COVID- 19 pandemic occurred, the last Caricom summit in July gone was held virtually. It is expected any other upcoming events will also be held virtually.
On the IACHR issue, Al- Rawi said this country denounced the IACHR convention in 1998 .This was done by the UNC Government ‘s then Attorney General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj concerning the death penalty issue and the Pratt and Morgan judgment. T&T’s never rejoined IACHR.
He said the persuasiveness of IACHR’s statement was noted but T&T must comply with its law and constitution .
Al- Rawi noted a decision by Justice Frank Seepersad, resulting in the six children staying in T&T.
He said the separation of power between the executive and judiciary means Government couldn’t interfere in judicial matters . He said all of this would be known to Charles - including T&T’s non-membership with IACHR .
On Charles’ call for T&T to update refugee law to prevent “further international embarrassment” in migration issues, Al- Rawi said T&T cannot ignore its Constitution and laws inviting chaos into the country by Charles whom he said “was interested in pleasing everyone but the people of T&T.”
When Charles claimed international opinions affected T&T’s democracy, Al- Rawi said he was most surprised Charles said so when Charles’ party had refused to support conventions for international issues,”It can’t be you make it up as you go along!” Al- Rawi declared.
No South Florida students prevented from writing exams
Education Minister Nyan Gadsby- Dolly also told UNC’s Rudy Indarsingh that no South Florida university student was debarred from writing exams due to payment issues .
She elaborated that names of six students were brought to her by the Guardian and on investigation the matter was dealt with .There were some issues with payment with regard to the consulate and that was sorted out . Two issues of transfers were also sorted out
“So there are no students at this time to my knowledge who are barred from writing exams at the University of South Florida,|”
Asked if she could guarantee no further problems, Gadsby -Dolly said she wasn’t a fortune teller. She said the Education Ministry was implementing all measures to ensure students are adequately taken care of. But in some cases the issue isn’t on the Ministry’s side but the consulates, as COVID 19 has presented difficulty with their operation.
“So on our end we’re doing what we have to do to ensure our students are taken care of .”