06 Sep 2014 Caribbean Communications Day – A focus on Communications Rights

Castries Saint Lucia. May 12th 2014. As the communities around the world observe World Telecommunications and Information Society Day (WTISD) on May 17th 2014, a grouping of Caribbean communicators has called for the establishment of a Caribbean Communications day on May 14th every year.

The Caribbean chapter of the World Association for Christian Communications (WACC) has urged all the Caribbean governments and media organisations to work with community groups and NGOs to develop programmes, which will promote the communications rights of citizens in different spheres of society.

For 2014, WACC Caribbean has proposed the theme “Communications Rights and Climate Change”.  Activities and discussions must focus on the wide range of issues, which result from the lack of effective communications of messages in local and indigenous languages on the threats of natural disasters and impacts of climate change in general.

The situation was highlighted during the passage of severe weather conditions in the region in recent times and in particular the low level trough that affected communities in Saint Lucia, Dominica and St, Vincent and the Grenadines.

In pursuit of this goal of communications rights and climate change, WACC will work with the appropriate agencies and communities in Caribbean region to organize community consultations and workshops. At these events, communities will share their concerns over the communications of weather information in their language, while representatives of state agencies will work with these communities to improve on the communications of information.

WACC Caribbean is a chapter of the global movement WACC which implements programmes around the world on all aspects of communications rights. WACC Caribbean has members in Haiti, Suriname, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Santo Domingo, Puerto Rice and Cuba.

The current executive is made up as follows:  Embert Charles – Saint Lucia (president); Keisha Gay Jackson – Jamaica  (vice president); Sandra Clenen – Suriname (treasurer): Seferina Delacruz – Dominican Republic (secretary). Jose Luis Soto  -Dominican Republic; and Herold Toussaint Haiti.

The WACC Caribe meets every three years to discuss the status of communications in the regional and develop strategies in response to these issues. The next WACC Assembly is schedule to be held in Puerto Rico in November 2014.

Embert Charles

President

May 12th 2014