Executive Secretary of the Council of Presidents of the United Nations (U.N.) General Assembly, Dr. Carlyle G. Corbin will be the keynote speaker at the opening ceremony for the Anguilla Country Conference 2017. Hosted by the University of the West Indies (UWI) Open Campus Anguilla in collaboration with the Anguilla Community College (ACC), the Conference which forms part of the official list of activities in recognition of the 50th Anniversary of the Anguilla Revolution, is slated for 19th – 21st April 2017.
Dr. Corbin is no stranger to Anguilla, having previously served as Constitutional Advisor to the Anguilla Constitutional and Electoral Reform Committee on behalf of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). An international advisor on Governance and Multilateral Diplomacy, and senior fellow in the global Dependency Studies Project, he lectures on governance and constitutional development at the University of Guam in Micronesia. He also serves as an Independent Expert to the U.N. Special Committee on Decolonisation.
A former Minister of State for External Affairs of the U.S. Virgin Islands Government, Dr. Corbin was that territory’s representative to the U.N. Special Political and Decolonisation Committee, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Caribbean Development and Cooperation Committee, and other global and regional bodies for over twenty-five (25) years. As Minister of State, he also founded and chaired the ECLAC Working Group of Non-Independent Caribbean Countries.
Dr. Corbin’s was also the UNDP Governance Expert to U.N. Special Political Missions to Bermuda and the Turks and Caicos Islands, as well as Advisor to the Premier of Bermuda, the Prime Minister of Curacao, the President of French Polynesia, the Island Council of Sint Eustatius, and the U.S. Virgin Islands Fifth Constitutional Convention. He previously served as Secretary-General of the bilateral Inter Virgin Islands Council between the British Virgin Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The internationally-acclaimed, well-published Caribbean scholar is also the developer of the Corbin Self-Governance Indicators (C-SGIs) presently in use in selected Caribbean and Pacific dependencies and autonomous countries as a diagnostic tool to assess self-governance sufficiency in the respective dependency governance arrangements. His latest book, “Toward a Full Measure of Self-Government,” is scheduled for publication in the first quarter of 2017.
The Anguilla Country Conference is under the theme “ANGUILLA: THE UNFINISHED REVOLUTION? Considering Nation Building And Self-Determination” and includes a wide range of topics including: Self-determination, Independence, Memory and History, Migration and National Identity, Education, Health, Youth, Culture, Crime, Order and Disorder, Food Security, the Environment, Communication, Gender, the Family and Nation Building.
A number of local, regional and international academics, professionals and youth representatives will be among the panelists presenting at the Conference.
The regional Country Conferences is an initiative of the UWI Open Campus and are designed to stimulate and highlight research on the host country and provide important tools for national development. The local UWI branch is pleased to be partnering with the ACC for the 2017 Conference as part of the 50th Anguilla Day celebration activities and is encouraging the participation of Anguillians at home and abroad.
Details on the Conference can be obtained from the UWI Open Campus Anguilla at (264)497-8156, email phyllis.fleming-banks@open.uwi.edu http://www.open.uwi.edu/sites/default/files/Anguilla_Country_Conference_2017-CALL_FOR_PAPERS.pdf
– Press Release
(Published without editing by The Anguillian newspaper.)