News Releases

Indigenous Peoples take centre stage

For Release Upon Receipt - March 13, 2019

St. Augustine


UWI workshop spotlights their intellectual property and environmental rights

 (From left) Chief Ricardo Hernandez, Chief of the Santa Rosa First Peoples Community; Minister of Labour and Small Enterprise Development Senator the Honourable Jennifer Baptiste-Primus; Prof. Rose-Marie Belle Antoine, Dean, Faculty of Law, The UWI, St. Augustine and Santa Rosa First Peoples “Medicine Man” Mr. Cristo Adonis at The UWI Faculty of Law Workshop on Pr otecting Intellectual Property and the Environmental Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Trinidad and Tobago

From left: Chief Ricardo Hernandez, Chief of the Santa Rosa First Peoples Community; Minister of Labour and Small Enterprise Development Senator the Honourable Jennifer Baptiste-Primus; Prof. Rose-Marie Belle Antoine, Dean, Faculty of Law, The UWI, St. Augustine and Santa Rosa First Peoples “Medicine Man” Mr. Cristo Adonis at  The UWI Faculty of Law Workshop on Pr otecting Intellectual Property and the Environmental Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Trinidad and Tobago.

 “Preserving culture and unique practices and preserving the environment that supports livelihoods provide the gateway to sustaining a people and strengthening a nation,” said Professor Rose-Marie Belle Antoine, Dean of the Faculty of Law (FOL) as she addressed participants of The University of the West Indies (UWI) St. Augustine Campus, FOL, International Human Rights Clinic Training Workshop on Protecting the Intellectual Property and Environmental Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Trinidad and Tobago. Over 100 persons attended the workshop on Saturday 23rd February, 2019 at The UWI, St. Augustine Campus. 

The workshop attempted to provide First Peoples and other stakeholders with concrete tools of law, in particular, intellectual property rights and environmental rights, to better protect and preserve their own interests, creations and resources. This involved explanations of copyright, trademark, patent and traditional knowledge laws. Professor Antoine, who previously served as the President and Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, (IACHR) OAS, Washington emphasised the importance of human rights as a legal framework for the intellectual property and environmental rights of indigenous peoples.

“We often think of rights as abstract, but Human Rights are not sterile and merely idealistic… divorced from the substance of our lives.  They should be meaningful, living, concrete expressions of our existence…. I believe that it is the duty of the scholar to translate rights and locate it within its community,” said Professor Belle Antoine.

Among the key speakers at the workshop was Minister of Labour and Small Enterprise Development Senator the Honourable Jennifer Baptiste-Primus who urged participants to be mindful of the possible impact of an increasingly digitised world on the protection of intellectual property, biotechnological inventions, expressions of folklore and non-original databases.

“The interactions between the local and international intellectual property systems shape the needs and expectations of indigenous peoples and sessions such as today’s workshop provide an opportunity for us to build the requisite synergies necessary for securing the protection of intellectual property and the environmental rights of Indigenous Peoples in Trinidad and Tobago,” said Minister Baptiste-Primus.

During the workshop, the national and international legal principles of environmental rights were examined, both as stand-alone rights and to locate the natural connection with the intellectual property of the First Peoples. Other practical, complementary skills to facilitate the development of small enterprises were also taught. In his presentation, Dr. Justin Koo of The UWI FOL explained the need for visibility, identity and preservation of the First Peoples’ brand in an ever-developing Trinidad and Tobago economy and environment, “Branding is of utmost importance in developing, harnessing and preserving one’s identity. Trade mark law can be used by the First Peoples to protect their brand and moreover, be used as the means for the T&T population to actively recognise their often ‘underground’ existence.”

Other key speakers and presenters at the workshop included Chief Ricardo Hernandez, Chief of the Santa Rosa First Peoples Community; Mr. Roger Belix, President of the Partners For First Peoples Development; Mr. Cristo Adonis of the Santa Rosa First Peoples’ Community; Mr. Rabina Shar, Grand Chief for the Warao Nation; Dr. Sharon Le Gall and Mr. John Knechtle of The UWI FoL; Dr. Roger Hosein and Ms. Rebecca Gookool of The UWI Department of Economics; and Ms. Elsy Curihuinca Neira, Indigenous Attorney at the Rapporteurship on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

This workshop was the fourth event of the Human Rights Project entitled “Strengthening Trinidad and Tobago’s Human Rights Capacity through Innovative Legal Education Delivery” which is a project implemented by the FOL and funded through the Ministry of Education under the European Development Fund.                                                                     

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About The European Development Fund Human Rights Project

The Faculty of Law, University of the West Indies St. Augustine is currently implementing a 2-year project entitled Strengthening Trinidad and Tobago’s Human Rights Capacity through Innovative Legal Education Delivery. This project is funded by the European Development Fund (EDF), and administered by the Ministry of Education, Trinidad and Tobago. The subject areas of the project include the rights of Indigenous Peoples, Children’s Rights, Gender and the Rights of Migrants, Refugees and Persons Deprived of Liberty. The project’s core objective is to develop the capacity of the Faculty’s newly instituted International Human Rights Clinic to address human rights issues in Trinidad and Tobago and the wider region through a dynamic legal education and outreach model that prioritizes empirical research, activist lawyering and collaboration with practicing attorneys and NGOs.

For more information on the Project “Strengthening Trinidad and Tobago’s Human Rights Capacity through Innovative Legal Education Delivery”, contact the Project Manager, Ms. Keisha Garcia at kgarciasalick@gmail.com

 

About The UWI

Since its inception in 1948, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has evolved from a fledgling college in Jamaica with 33 students to a full-fledged, regional University with well over 40,000 students. Today, The UWI is the largest, most longstanding higher education provider in the Commonwealth Caribbean, with four campuses in Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Open Campus. The UWI has faculty and students from more than 40 countries and collaborative links with 160 universities globally; it offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Food & Agriculture, Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science and Technology, Social Sciences and Sport. The UWI’s seven priority focal areas are linked closely to the priorities identified by CARICOM and take into account such over-arching areas of concern to the region as environmental issues, health and wellness, gender equity and the critical importance of innovation. Website: www.uwi.edu 

(Please note that the proper name of the university is The University of the West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.)

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