SVG Diaspora Committee to host public lecture on role of CCJ
BY NELSON A. KING From Caribbean Life
The Brooklyn-based St. Vincent and the Grenadines Diaspora Committee of New York, Inc., says it will be collaborating with Brooklyn’s Medgar Evers College in hosting a public lecture, at the college’s Founders Auditorium, on Nov. 30, on the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).
Sherrill-Ann Mason Haywood, chairperson of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Diaspora Committee of New York, Inc., said on Monday that the event will be held at 6 pm under the patronage of the Consulate General of St. Vincent and the Grenadines to the U.S.A.
She said the lecture will be presented by Vincentian-born Justice Dr. Adrian Saunders, CCJ president, on “The Role and Importance of the CCJ in advancing the Caribbean Civilization.”
Mason Haywood noted that the CCJ was established in 2001 and inaugurated in April 2005 as a court of both final appeal from Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member-states and original jurisdiction for disputes arising out of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.
The CCJ is funded through an independent Caribbean Court of Justice Trust Fund “developed to ensure the financial independence of the Court from political interference,” Mason Haywood said.
Justice Saunders became the third president of the CCJ, based in Trinidad and Tobago, in July 2018, having been elected in February 2018. He was named a member of the CCJ in 2005 when the Court was inaugurated.
Mason Haywood said Saunders’ lecture marks the official launch of the Maxwell Haywood Memorial Scholarship and Development Fund.
Maxwell Haywood, Mason Haywood’s husband, was an outstanding son of the Vincentian soil and was the founding chairman of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Diaspora Committee of New York, Inc.
She said he “served as its fearless leader for seven years until his untimely passing on Nov. 29, 2017,” of cancer.
“He was a progressive, forward-thinking community organizer, journalist, poet, song writer, and social critic,” Mason Haywood said.
Professionally, she said Haywood served as the Focal Point on Cooperatives in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) at the United Nations.
He was an alumnus of Medgar Evers College, where he was an active student leader and earned his undergraduate degree in Public Administration.
He also held a master’s degree in Human Resource Management and Social Policy from the New School University.
“Haywood fought tirelessly for the advancement of the Vincentian Diaspora and was a strong proponent for unity among Caribbean people at home and in the Diaspora,” Mason Haywood said.
Mason Haywood said the lecture by Justice Saunders is the inaugural Memorial lecture.
Persons wishing to RSVP, can contact (718)-344-7865, email: svgdi
Donations to the Maxwell Haywood Memorial Scholarship and Development Fund can be made payable to the “SVG Diaspora Committee of New York Inc.”
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