Bahamas – CARICOM

CARIFESTA – Caribbean Festival of Arts

Tue, 07 Jul 2020 06:14:00 +0000

The Caribbean Festival of Arts (CARIFESTA) is a roving multi-disciplinary art festival which has been held in various CARICOM countries since its establishment in 1972. It is a regional forum where artists, performers and other persons in the field of culture meet and exchange ideas through presentations of music, dance, drama, exhibitions on art, sculpture, poetry and symposia, among others. The CARICOM Secretariat through the Council on Human and Social Development (COHSOD) has since been involved not only in the shaping and preservation of CARIFESTA but also in promoting a coordinated approach to cultural policy development as embodied in the CARICOM Regional Cultural Policy endorsed by the Caribbean Community in 1994.

The early years of CARIFESTA were captured from the Newspaper clippings collection sourced from The National Library of Guyana. The CARIFESTA collection currently covers information emanating from all the CARIFESTAs held to date. The Collection is supplemented by contributions from the Directorate of Human and Social Development through its Culture desk which liaises with the various Directors of Culture in the region and with the Secretariats of the Host Country.

The Collection includes consultants’ and country reports, articles extracted from magazines, correspondence, press releases, information leaflets, presentations at Symposia, programmes, various CARIFESTA themes; posters, photographs and newspaper clippings.

Explore CARIFESTA through the years

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CARICOM Youth Ambassadors

Sun, 05 Jul 2020 00:03:50 +0000

The CARICOM Youth Ambassador Programme was launched in Saint Lucia in 1993 by the Heads of Government to mark the Twentieth Anniversary of CARICOM and was formally instituted in 1994. Since its inception, the Youth Ambassador Programme has contributed to increased youth knowledge and awareness of CARICOM issues and priorities; has raised the profile of young people at the national and regional levels; and has assisted in integrating the views and perspectives of young people from across the Region into national, regional and international policy and programmes.

These goals serve as a guideline for developing appropriate programme interventions and resource allocations, both at the regional and national level. Goals and targets should be reviewed from time to time to ensure they adequately and effectively respond to the needs and challenges of target populations. Importantly, while achieving the goals and targets of the CYAP, CYAs can help young people achieve their goals through matching the programmes implemented and the policies with their needs.

Strategic Goals of the CYAP

Goal 1: Educate Youth about regional issues and assist/encourage them to take advantage of an contribute to opportunities under the Caribbean Community’s Programme.
Goal 2: Integrate Youth Perspectives and encourage youth participation in the Caribbean Community’s Broader Social and Economic Development Systems.
Goal 3: Advocate for the rights of Young People and contribute to the development and implementation of effective national and regional policies and sustainable programme.
Goal 4: Promote Caribbean identify and citizenship among Young People.
Goal 5: Monitor and evaluate the implementation of the CYAP.

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Ms Marion Berthel

Sun, 14 Jun 2020 16:59:19 +0000

Marion Bethel, Bahamian by birth and quintessential Caribbean woman, is a distinguished attorney, scholar, poet, film-maker, essayist and short-story writer who has gained national, regional and international recognition and acclaim for her advocacy in the areas of gender equality and human rights.
Ms. Bethel’s accomplishments have been shaped through a rich career and distinguished academic pursuits and achievements worldwide. Our recipient began as a Junior Abroad to the University of Valencia in 1973 and went on to acquire a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Spanish at the McGill University in Montreal in 1975. Immediately after, she completed a Master of Arts Degree at the Teachers College, Columbia University, New York and entered the teaching profession in The Bahamas, eventually serving as a lecturer at the College of The Bahamas.
Ms Bethel’s academic and career aspirations were however, not to be narrowly circumscribed, and in 1984, she was awarded a Bachelor of Arts in Law from Cambridge University, England and admitted to the Bar of England and Wales the following year. After practicing Law with the Attorney General’s Chambers in The Bahamas, she returned to academic pursuits and in 1990, received a Master of Arts in Law from Cambridge University in the UK. Ms. Bethel has been a partner in the Sears and Company Law Chambers in Nassau since 1994. She has been a member of the Legal Aid Centre, The Bahamas Bar Association, Founder and Co-editor of The Bahamas Bar Journal, and has served on the International Federation of Women Lawyers since 2007.
As an advocate for Human Rights, Ms. Bethel was Co-Founder and Chairperson of The Bahamas Committee on South Africa, and from 1996 to 1997, she was Convener and Chair of the Citizens’ Committee against Violence and the Death Penalty in Nassau. She has been a delegate to several conferences including the Caribbean Regional Judicial Colloquium for Senior Judges on the Promotion of Human Rights for Women and the Girl Child through the Judiciary.
Throughout her career, Ms. Bethel has made significant contributions to advancing gender equality. She is the Founder and Convener of Developing Alternatives for Women Now (DAWN), established in 1986 as a women’s association in The Bahamas, committed to articulating and actualizing the needs and aspirations of women. She served as a member of the National Women’s Advisory Council from 1991- 1996, and during this period, also served on several international committees including the Group of Experts for the Organisation of American States, Inter-American Commission on Women responsible for drafting Model Regulation for Member States on the prevention and elimination of violence against women.
Ms Bethel’s dedication to the cause of women has also found expression in her work as a community volunteer. She has conducted peer and group counseling for women in crisis, undertaken rape survivor advocacy work and taught English and reading skills at the Women’s Prison in Nassau.
In the field of arts and culture, Marion Bethel has excelled in writing poetry, short stories and essays. In 2008, she co-founded The Bahamas Writers’ Summer Institute, which offers creative writing workshops in poetry, playwriting and screenwriting to emerging and established writers and also engages writers and The Bahamian community in a dynamic conversation on the literary arts, culture, society and the role of the writer. Ms Bethel has also served as guest writer at several notable regional and international meetings for writers and poets, including an International Writers Workshop at the Hong Kong Baptist University. She has also had the honour of serving for a year as the Alice Proskauer Poetry Fellow at the Mary Ingraham Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College, Harvard University.
Not surprisingly, Marion Bethel has been the recipient of numerous awards, among them, the James Michener Fellowship awarded by the Caribbean Writers Summer Institute in Miami, Florida in 1991. As the recipient of the prestigious Casa de Las Americas Prize awarded in 1995 for her volume of poetry called Guanahani, My Love, Ms. Bethel can be justifiably regarded as an important member of that elite group of Caribbean writers whose works have been recognized as making a significant contribution to the regional and global conversation on human rights in general, and the rights and condition of women in particular.
This outstanding daughter of the Caribbean has more recently ventured into yet another area of endeavour to give further voice to her passion and advocacy for women’s rights. Her recent work, a documentary film entitled Womanish Ways: Freedom, Human Rights & Democracy, the Women’s Suffrage Movement in The Bahamas 1948 to 1962, chronicles the journey to the enfranchisement of women in 1962.   As expressed in her own words:
‘Bahamian women worked tirelessly to resist and redress the racial discrimination and segregation and other social, political and economic inequities that permeated Bahamian society during this period.   Women from all walks of life played a significant role in helping to advance human rights for Bahamians and, thereby, created a deeper understanding of freedom and democracy’.

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Bahamas

Sat, 18 Jan 2020 18:21:11 +0000

Key facts

Date of Membership in CARICOM: 4 Jul 1983 – Learn more about membership in CARICOM

Also Known as:The Place Where Worlds Meet (Source: The Heraldry of the Commonwealth Caribbean)

Status of Independence:Independent 1973/07/10

Area: 13,939 sq km

Capital City: Nassau

Population: 377,000 (2013)

Currency: Bahamian dollar B$

Highest National Award: Order of National Hero

Economy

GDP Growth: 0.0% p.a. 2009–13

GNI: US$8.4bn

GNI PC: US$22,312

Key dates in history

SOME KEY DATES IN HISTORY

It is believed that the original inhabitants were Arawak people. They were followed by the Caribs.
1492   Named Guanahani by the original native inhabitants – the Lucayan Indians – Columbus promptly renamed the island San Salvador or ‘Holy Savior’. Later, San Salvador was taken over by the British buccaneer, George Watling who renamed the island Watling’s Island after himself. It was not until 1926 that the island’s name was restored to San Salvador which it remains to this day.’
1629   the islands given their first constitution as part of the Carolinas (USA)
1648    First British settlers arrived
1717   Became a British Colony
1953   Progressive Liberal Party founded to represent black interests in a system still then dominated by whites.
1964   Internal self rule
1973   Independence achieved

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