United Nations Radio

Caribbean News Round-Up: a weekly 15-minute news magazine on developments at the United Nations concerning the Caribbean.

Coming out of the successful Bali conference on climate change, the Alliance of Small Island States AOSIS- a grouping of 44 small island states in the Caribbean and Mediterranean Seas, and the Indian and Pacific Oceans- demanded that every effort be made to immediately reduce emissions as a matter of urgency.
Chairman of the Alliance Ambassador Angus Friday of Grenada warned that a failure of the global community to protect the most vulnerable will be a failure of the entire process to halt climate change.

Antigua and Barbuda took over the chairmanship of the Group of 77 developing countries and China

In January, Antigua and Barbuda took over the chairmanship of the Group of 77 developing countries and China. It was last September that the Caribbean State was elected to the chairmanship of the 132-member grouping. At that time, Prime minister Baldwin Spencer stressed that it was not a responsibility the state took lightly and intended to rise valiantly to the task, executing the responsibilities of the Chair with professionalism and skill.

A Barbadian was named among the winners of the 2008 Champion of the earth Award

A former Barbados environment minister was named as a winner of the
2008 Champions of the earth Award.
Elizabeth Thompson joined green achievers from Bangladesh to New Zealand
were honored at the international award ceremony in Singapore in April.
The announcement by the UN Environment Programme said Ms. Thompson had
become one of the recognized leaders on environmental issues of the small island
developing States.
During her time as Minister of Energy and the Environment of Barbados, she
became a key voice to raise awareness of global warming in Barbados - an island
where the challenges of climate change and conservation are of particular
relevance.

A Jamaican among the recipients of the 2008 United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights

A Jamaican was among the recipients of the 2008 United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights.
Dr. Carolyne Gomes, is co-founder of Jamaicans for Justice which defends marginalized groups in that country against abuses of the criminal judicial system and other violations of civil rights.

Storms Affecting Haiti

Haiti was of major concern to the United Nations and its agencies for a second week as a result of a series of storms affecting the country.
The United Nations appealed for $108 million to provide humanitarian and early recovery assistance for the next six months to survivors of a series of storms that hit Haiti.

Doha Conference on Financing for Development

The Doha conference on Financing for Development ended early December with a declaration in which nations affirmed that the commitment made at the 2002 landmark global partnership agreement for development in Monterrey, Mexico, for developed countries to devote 0.7 per cent of their gross national product (GNP) to ODA must be maintained, despite the current financial crisis. Known as the Monterrey Consensus, that agreement addressed such issues as domestic resource mobilization, official development assistance (ODA), trade, foreign direct investment (FDI) and debt relief.

Producer: Donn Bobb