Barbados

February 2019: GCPEA and the Save the Children Geneva Advocacy Office met with the Deputy Permanent Representative. He joined the Mission recently and was not familiar with the issue of attacks on and military use of schools. At the beginning, he couldn’t see why this issue was relevant to a peaceful country like Barbados. GCPEA explained that even countries not affected by the issue are encouraged to endorse the Declaration in order to show solidarity and to recognise the importance of the topic.
Follow-up: GCPEA followed up in writing, sharing a letter for the Foreign Minister. The DPR responded that he had sent the correspondence to the relevant authorities in Bridgetown and that he hoped that Barbados would be able to endorse the Declaration soon.

June 2021: GCPEA met with Ricardo Kellman, Counsellor at the Barbados Mission in Geneva after he was unable to connect to the GRULAC-organised meeting. GCPEA presented the Declaration and its commitments, focusing on the added-value to endorse for countries not directly affected by conflict, highlighting progresses in the GRULAC region. I emphasized that over half of the GRULAC countries have already endorsed, including some in the Caribbeans, and that Barbados could play a leading role for the rest of the Caribbeans to endorse as well. I explained that even non-conflict affected areas could play a leading role by highlight and supporting this agenda in multilateral forums. He stated that most likely the reason for non-endorsement would be that this had not been on their radar. In any case, he promised to get back to me with his capital’s answer on the subject. He asked for a comprehensive email with all of this information and a strong focus on the Caribbean, rather than GRULAC, countries that have already endorsed. He said he would come back to us with either a positive response towards endorsement or the reasons from capital as to why they have not yet endorsed because as far as he knows, there are no reasons that would prevent from endorsing.

September 2022 Transforming Education Summit: Barbados committed to “conduct an assessment of the current school safety policy to determine whether it is fit for purpose, and whether it takes into consideration the needs of all students, including those with special educational needs”

October 2022: On 25 October, we met with Ms. Melissa Straker Taylor, First Secretary at the NY mission. She was not familiar with the issue so we provided a comprehensive overview. We also made the link with the Comprehensive School Safety Framework and the “all hazard” approach, which includes protection of schools in armed conflict. She was interested in the level of endorsement at the CARICOM level. We sent a comprehensive follow up.

November 2022: Following Colombia’s endorsement to the SSD, GCPEA convinced and supported the Permanent Mission of Argentina in Geneva to send a Note Verbale to the remaining GRULAC non-endorsing states: Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela – encouraging them to endorse the SSD.

May 2023: On 30 May, Apolline met with Melissa Straker-Taylor, First Secretary at the mission in NY. I shared with her the news about Guyana joining (bringing the number of endorsing states in CARICOM to 5) and asked for an update from her capital since our meeting in October 2022. She explained that following our meeting, there had been a change in government, which had left things “up in the air” for a while. She said that she will submit a new recommendation to her capital on endorsing the SSD and follow-up. A good point to note is that her colleague in capital was the focal point in Geneva last year, with whom I had already met and briefed on the SSD. Therefore, he is up to speed and supportive of endorsement, let’s hope it plays in our favour. She asked me to check-in again in a couple months.