ST. VINCENT – A three-day regional capacity-building workshop for Member States of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) on treaty law and practice was held from July 15 to 17, in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Convened by the CARICOM Secretariat‘s Office of the General Counsel and hosted by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Attorney General’s office of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, it was organized in collaboration with the United Nations (UN) Treaty Section of the Office of Legal Affairs.
The UN Secretary-General has identified the consolidation and the advancement of the rule of law at the national and international levels as one of the most important goals of the Organization and this training served to further that goal by bringing together officials of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Justice, private practitioners as well as judges and Attorneys General.
The opening ceremony included statements by Hon. Judith Jones Morgan, Attorney General of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Ms. Cheryl Thompson-Barrow, General Counsel, CARICOM and Ms. Annebeth Rosenboom, Chief of the Treaty Section of the Office of Legal Affairs, representing the UN.
General presentations were given on international treaty law, participation in multilateral treaties and the depositary practice of the UN Secretary-General, the registration of treaties under Article 102 of the UN Charter, and reservations and declarations by officials of the Treaty Section of the Office of Legal Affairs. CARICOM institutions, final clauses of treaties, the implementation of treaties in domestic law, and the CARICOM Secretariat’s practice on registration and depositary matters were covered by CARICOM Secretariat officials and other specialists in treaty law and practice from the Region.
The final day focused on discussing future plans for the Community with respect to treaties, and requests from the UN family of offices and programmes that could assist CARICOM Member States to implement treaties on the domestic level, in collaboration with the CARICOM Secretariat.
