Trinidad and Tobago

No engagement, apart from letter sent to Foreign Minister in advance of Buenos Aires conference.

July 2018: Sent an email to the mission in Geneva requesting a meeting. Nevena followed up by phone but no success.

October 2018: UN WPS open debate advocacy in New York: GCPEA first meeting with Trinidad and Tobago. Gisela met with the Ambassador, who focused on the issue of inter-student violence in schools… She referred to the disproportionately-high number of ISI recruits from Trinidad and Tobago. She also mentioned the role the police and military play within the country in running youth clubs aimed at engaging young people in positive activities. She referred to Zama’s presentation to CARICOM and suggested that we should aim for a group endorsement by CARICOM with Jamaica as a champion. (Jamaica is currently the chair, and will rotate out at the end of this year.) The Annual Meeting of Ministers of National Security would be a good forum. She provided contact details for the Permanent Observer of CARICOM and recommended me to seek a meeting with her. Follow-up: Letter for Foreign Minister and gender recommendations sent by email. GCPEA will seek a meeting with the CARICOM Observer. New York colleagues will seek meeting with Jamaica to build on Zama’s meeting with them in June, encourage them to champion this issue in CARICOM and push for endorsement.

March 2019: Diya met with the Ambassador and the Counsellor at the Permanent Mission in New York. The Ambassador was familiar with the Declaration and was more interested to hear why Trinidad and Tobago, as a non-conflict affected state, should endorse the Safe Schools Declaration. The Ambassador also elicited suggestions on how the Declaration could help Trinidad and Tobago address some of the problems that they are facing such as the high number of ISIS recruits, the possibility of military intervention in Venezuela, as well as the influx of refugees. GCPEA explained that some of the good practice in implementing the Declaration could also be applied to these problems, e.g. good practice in implementing the commitment to promote conflict-sensitive education. Ambassador Beckles stated that a capital visit by GCPEA could help to move the process forward, after Diya mentioned that this was a possibility. They were interested to know which other CARICOM members we have engaged, and also which countries more broadly are close to making the decision to endorse. The Ambassador also provided us with contact information for the CARICOM Permanent Observer, but did not specifically commit to making an introduction. The name and email she provided is Ambassador Missouri Sherman-Peter at cari.per.obs.un@gmail.com. Belize is currently chairing the group of CARICOM, not St. Kitts and Nevis.The Ambassador recommended that we follow up specifically with Grenada, Guyana, and Antigua & Barbuda, as she thought they might be most receptive to our arguments out of all the CARICOM members, and it sounded like she had discussed the Declaration directly with Guyana at a CARICOM meeting that she had chaired and that Grenada and Antigua had been most responsive to the Declaration at that meeting too.

April 2019: Diya wrote to the Ambassador requesting advocacy meetings for Bede in capital with the MoE and MoD.

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.