On De­cem­ber 18, 2009, the Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly pro­claimed the year be­gin­ning Jan­u­ary 1, 2011, the In­ter­na­tion­al Year for Peo­ple of African De­scent and urged mem­ber na­tions and sup­port agen­cies to adopt Res­o­lu­tion 64/169 "to make prepa­ra­tions for and iden­ti­fy pos­si­ble ini­tia­tives that can con­tribute to the suc­cess of the Year." In keep­ing with this di­rec­tive, the Eman­ci­pa­tion Sup­port Com­mit­tee has in­vit­ed Pro­fes­sor Verene Shep­herd, the Caribbean and Latin Amer­i­ca's rep­re­sen­ta­tive on the Unit­ed Na­tions Work­ing Group of Ex­perts on Peo­ple of African De­scent, to par­tic­i­pate in its break­fast meet­ing and launch on Wednes­day.

The Work­ing Group of Ex­perts on Peo­ple of African De­scent was es­tab­lished un­der the Hu­man Rights Coun­cil of the Unit­ed Na­tions to col­lab­o­rate with re­spec­tive coun­tries to de­vise poli­cies aimed at erad­i­cat­ing racism, racial dis­crim­i­na­tion, xeno­pho­bia and re­lat­ed in­tol­er­ance. Shep­herd, who re­placed the late Prof Rex Net­tle­ford on the pan­el will present valu­able in­sight and her ex­pe­ri­ences as a mem­ber of the group. Shep­herd is the head of the His­to­ry and Ar­chae­ol­o­gy De­part­ment and a di­rec­tor at the In­sti­tute for Gen­der and De­vel­op­ment Stud­ies at UWI Mona Cam­pus.

A hold­er of BA and MPhil de­grees in his­to­ry from the UWI, a PhD in his­to­ry from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cam­bridge and a fel­low of the Cam­bridge Com­mon­wealth So­ci­ety, she has, among her many ac­com­plish­ments, the dis­tinc­tion of be­ing the first woman Chair of the Ja­maica Na­tion­al Her­itage Trust since its in­cep­tion in 1958. She is al­so a pro­lif­ic au­thor with more 50 jour­nal ar­ti­cles, book chap­ters and books, in­clud­ing I Want to Dis­turb My Neigh­bour: Lec­tures on Slav­ery, Eman­ci­pa­tion and Post­colo­nial Ja­maica, and Ma­ha­rani's Mis­ery: nar­ra­tives from a Pas­sage from In­dia to the Caribbean.

In 2007, she was asked by the Gov­ern­ment of Ja­maica to chair the Ja­maica Na­tion­al Bi­cen­te­nary Com­mit­tee and in that ca­pac­i­ty, helped to gen­er­ate a doc­u­ment on repa­ra­tion. The break­fast meet­ing and me­dia launch of the Eman­ci­pa­tion Sup­port Com­mit­tee's ac­tiv­i­ties dur­ing the In­ter­na­tion­al Year for Peo­ple of African De­scent will take place on Jan­u­ary 26 from 7.30 am to 9.30 am at the Scar­let Ibis Room at Hilton Trinidad. The cost of the break­fast is $150. Tick­ets are avail­able at the ESC Sec­re­tari­at, 5b Berg­er­ac Road, Mar­aval. Xall 628 5008, 628 9189 or email in­fo.eman­ci­pa­tion@tstt.net.tt to book tick­ets.