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UWI TODAY
– SUNDAY 1 OCTOBER, 2017
Usually, when we think of lawyers,
not so positive
associations come to mind. We at the Faculty of Law want
to change that. The Faculty of Law, St Augustine wants to
create, not only graduates with excellent lawyering, technical
skills, but more importantly, wonderful citizens. As Dean,
it has been one of my most important goals and a burning
passion to inculcate in our charges a sense of community,
a vision of law as a social engineer and a multidisciplinary
instrument of progress for the improvement of society. We
must promote lawyers who will be active proponents of
positive change with a view to people-centred justice.
From its inception, the Faculty of Law, St. Augustine
has shaped its offerings of legal education, scholarship and
outreach to reflect these values. We have been promoting a
conscious activism, as part of the Faculty’s image and in our
students. This has been demonstrated by our involvement
with human rights projects, work with non-governmental
organizations and other public education programmes,
over the years.
The Faculty of Law is also focussed on broadening
access to legal education, long considered a privileged
education, while at the same time, making certain that the
products of such education represent the core tenets of law,
that is, justice and progress, in sustainable ways. Lawyers
should come fromall walks of life, to better serve the society.
The Makandal Daaga Scholarship in Law was created
to fulfil these objectives. Persons with a proven track record
of community service, or activism, who would not normally
have the opportunity to pursue The UWI law degree, are
the target applicants. Such advocacy includes work on issues
of justice, equality, or democracy, whether in an NGO,
governmental, regional capacity or in an individual capacity.
Candidates are selected after satisfying a select committee
on interview that he or she will use the once in a lifetime
opportunity to add value to the society, for the public good,
to uplift, inspire and elevate.
It is named in honour of someone, who, although not
a lawyer, embodied that very passion for social justice and
egalité that we wish to envelop our law graduates with.
The work of late social activist Makandal Daaga,
the “Chief Servant” of the people, who spearheaded the
Black Power Movement, focused on the central tenets
THE MAKANDAL DAAGA SCHOLARSHIP IN LAW
B Y P R O F E S S O R R O S E - M A R I E B E L L E A N T O I N E
D E A N , F A C U L T Y O F L A W
For Social Justice and Equality
of law: equality, social justice and fairness. His advocacy
made substantial impacts on areas that are of particular
relevance to law and legal policy. Makandal Daaga (born
Geddes Granger) was one of Trinidad and Tobago’s most
distinguished and inspiring sons. He was a revolutionary
leader best known for his leadership of the transformational
Black Power Movement in the 1970s, striving to create
a nation and region that elevated the place of persons of
African and non-white heritage.The struggle that Mr. Daaga
and his comrades engaged in challenged the status quo to
create a more egalitarian and just society, including the
goal of economic justice. Mr. Daaga and what his lifework
represents, exemplify what the Faculty of Law believes
those who shape and implement the law should be. His
advocacy, and that of the several organisations he instituted,
made significant impacts on areas that are of particular
relevance to law and legal policy. These include race
relations, non-discrimination and equality, labour relations
and employment practices, equity in property ownership
and commercial arrangements, democratic governance
and constitutional reform, gender empowerment, youth
development and the protection of our cultural heritage.
Mr. Daaga did not only lobby for change. He succeeded
in bringing about important, tangible reforms, not least in
relation to the employment opportunities for persons of
African and East Indian descent in Trinidad and Tobago,
which itself influenced other countries. His work also helped
to reshape the commercial infrastructure of the country in
terms of the legal ownership and control of capital, which
previously had been dominated by external and ‘white’
interests. This notion of concrete progress is an important
indicator for the Scholarship.
Our inaugural Makandal Daaga Scholar, Kareem
Marcelle, is a young man from Sea Lots, Port of Spain with
a determination, not just to succeed in his own life despite
the odds, but to elevate his community. He exemplifies the
raison d’être of this Scholarship and the life and work of
Makandal Daaga. His story is inspiring to us and we hope
to our students and stakeholders. We are ready to do all that
we can to help him succeed, and in so doing, create a better
country and region.
Delegates from 55 institutions
from 48
countries with representation from every
continent of the world met in Santiago, Chile
for the International Forum on Diplomatic
Training from September 6-8, 2017. This
meeting of Deans and Directors of Diplomatic
Academies and Institutes of International
Relations was organized by the Diplomatic
Academy of Chile “Andrés Bello” and the
programme focused on
‘Diplomatic training
on the content and implementation of the 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development’.
As the only representative from the
English-speaking Caribbean, the Diplomatic
Academy of Chile invited the Manager of the
DAOC, Dr. Khellon Roach to speak on Panel 2
of the forum:
“The Regional Scenario: Tackling
Key Political and Development Challenges
and Opportunities in Latin America and the
Caribbean”.
Dr. Roach highlighted six main challenges
to the Caribbean region: Crime & Security;
Health, in particular, non-communicable
diseases); Energy Security; Climate Change
and the Environment; Natural Disasters; and
Access to Financing not only to address the
various challenges, but to also implement the
new 2030 SDG Agenda.
Dr. Roachalsounderscored the importance
of multi-track diplomacy for the Caribbean
to punch above its weight and the need for
deeper collaboration between the academies
and institutions of Latin America and the
Caribbean.
The organization of the IFDT around the
2030 SDGs was a very timely intervention
and beneficial to the DAOC as it plans to
offer several programmes related to the 2030
SDG agenda in 2018. Although the DAOC is
not, at present, a member of the IFDT, after
consultationwith representatives of its co-chair
(Diplomatic Academy of Vienna), the DAOC
is actively considering formal membership.
International
Forum on
DIPLOMATIC
TRAINING
The family of Makandal Daaga: from left, Akhenaton Daaga, his mother Liseli and sister, Karomana, at right, with Kareem Marcelle,
scholarship winner, and Professor Rose-Marie Belle-Antoine, Dean of the Faculty of Law.
PHOTO: ATIBA CUDJOE
