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THE REPUBLIC of Haiti is set to host this year’s Inter-Sessional Meeting of Caribbean Community Heads of Governments next month in Port-au-Prince with two firsts to its credit: it would be the first time the oldest independent nation of the Latin America/Caribbean Region will host such a summit and also the first occasion to be presiding as chairman of CARICOM, now in its 40th year of existence.
President Michel Martelly, who has assumed the six-month rotating chairmanship from St. Lucia’s Prime Minister Dr Kenny Anthony of St. Lucia with the dawn of 2013, did not miss the opportunity to note that this year also marks the 209th anniversary of Haiti’s independence “under the banner of freedom and unity”
The process of ‘provisional membership” of Haiti into the “family of CARICOM states” goes back to 1997 when former Jamaica Prime Minister, P.J. Patterson hosted a regular annual summit of the regional economic integration in Kingston with then Haitian President ,Rene Preval as a “distinguished guest”.
But the full- membership process was interrupted by a foreign-backed military coup against the new administration of President Jean Bertrand Aristide and forced CARICOM to suspend Haiti’s membership in protest against such a development against a democratically-elected government.
Haiti’s membership status, under the revised CARICOM Treaty signed by President Aristide was officially restored in 2006 at that year’s annual summit hosted by the government of St.Kitts and Nevis.
In welcoming his accession as chairman of the 15-member Community, President Martelly pledged to “resolutely commit myself and my country to the noble and urgent necessity for us to unite to overcome the serious economic, environmental and social challenge affecting the Region…”
As new chairman President Martelly will preside over the three-member CARICOM Bureau that functions as a management committee, on behalf of the Heads of Government, in cooperation with the Georgetown-based Community Secretariat , which is headed by Secretary-General Irwin LaRocque.
The committee will now comprise Martelly; former Community chairman, Dr Anthony, and the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad-Bissessar,. She is expected to assume the chairmanship at the regular annual CARICOM Heads of Government Conference IN July, likely to be held in Port-of-Spain.
President Michel Martelly, who has assumed the six-month rotating chairmanship from St. Lucia’s Prime Minister Dr Kenny Anthony of St. Lucia with the dawn of 2013, did not miss the opportunity to note that this year also marks the 209th anniversary of Haiti’s independence “under the banner of freedom and unity”
The process of ‘provisional membership” of Haiti into the “family of CARICOM states” goes back to 1997 when former Jamaica Prime Minister, P.J. Patterson hosted a regular annual summit of the regional economic integration in Kingston with then Haitian President ,Rene Preval as a “distinguished guest”.
But the full- membership process was interrupted by a foreign-backed military coup against the new administration of President Jean Bertrand Aristide and forced CARICOM to suspend Haiti’s membership in protest against such a development against a democratically-elected government.
Haiti’s membership status, under the revised CARICOM Treaty signed by President Aristide was officially restored in 2006 at that year’s annual summit hosted by the government of St.Kitts and Nevis.
In welcoming his accession as chairman of the 15-member Community, President Martelly pledged to “resolutely commit myself and my country to the noble and urgent necessity for us to unite to overcome the serious economic, environmental and social challenge affecting the Region…”
As new chairman President Martelly will preside over the three-member CARICOM Bureau that functions as a management committee, on behalf of the Heads of Government, in cooperation with the Georgetown-based Community Secretariat , which is headed by Secretary-General Irwin LaRocque.
The committee will now comprise Martelly; former Community chairman, Dr Anthony, and the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad-Bissessar,. She is expected to assume the chairmanship at the regular annual CARICOM Heads of Government Conference IN July, likely to be held in Port-of-Spain.
