Trinidad elected to UN Commission on Peace

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, (CMC) – Trinidad and Tobago is the only Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country elected to a 31-member United Nations Peace Building Commission whose mandate is to propose integrated strategies for post conflict peace building and recovery as well as to design reconstruction efforts and institutions that facilitate the sustained resolution of conflict.

Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Dookeran said that the country was among six new members elected to serve for the period 2015-2017.

He said that the role of the Commission, whose membership includes Canada, Germany, Japan, The Netherlands, and Sweden, is critical to ensuring that countries which have experienced conflict do not suffer reversals that could not only undermine efforts at peace -building, but also have a deleterious effect on the long term sustainable development of the affected States.

Dookeran said that given Trinidad and Tobago’s role in the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and piloting a resolution at the United Nations General Disarmament, Non-Proliferation and Arms Control,  the island is particularly well-placed to make a meaningful contribution to the work of the Commission.