On May 8th 2019, the International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC) of the UWI Faculty of Law, and the Family Planning Association of Trinidad and Tobago (FPATT), presented before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) at its 172nd Period of Sessions held in Kingston, Jamaica. This activity was the sixth major activity of the Faculty’s Human Rights Project entitled 'Strengthening Trinidad and Tobago’s Human Rights Capacity through Innovative Legal Education Delivery', a 2- year project funded by the European Development Fund (EDF) through the Ministry of Education.

A three-member team comprised of Professor Rose-Marie Belle Antoine (Dean of the UWI Faculty of Law and former Commissioner and President of the IACHR), Dr. Priya Kissoon (Head of the Department of Geography, The UWI St. Augustine Campus) and Ms. Dona Da-Costa-Martinez (Executive Director, FPATT) spoke to the issue of  ‘Reports of Violations of Human Rights of Venezuelan Migrants in Trinidad and Tobago’. This presentation built on the research and momentum that were established by the Faculty of Law under its IHRC; and it utilised insights and inputs that were provided by the Panel discussion on Refugees hosted by the Faculty in June 2018 under the EDF Human Rights project.

Although the state was not represented at the Hearing, members of the IACHR were very moved by the presentation and described the report as "making visible the hidden face of the migration crisis that the hemisphere and world is facing’

A full recording of hearing is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc8VZEgkscA&feature=youtu.be

Information also available on pages 8&9 of UWI Today; July 2019 Issue: https://sta.uwi.edu/uwitoday/publications/July2019/files/assets/basic-html/index.html#8-9.