Black Immigrant Daily News

A United States court has ordered a former Haitian mayor to pay more than US$15.5 million in compensation after he was accused of murder, attempted killings, and torture in a civil lawsuit.

Attorneys had painted widely different pictures of Jean Morose Viliena during the opening arguments in US District Court in Boston. Those included claims of killing, torture and arson — or a successful mayor who helped improve the town of Les Irois in the late 2000s.

Viliena, who now lives in Massachusetts, was sued by three Haitian citizens who say they or their relatives were persecuted by him and his political allies when he was the mayor of the rural town.

“Today’s verdict brings justice to me, my family, and the other families of those who have been victims of Viliena’s campaign of terror,” one of the plaintiffs, David Boniface, said in a statement on Tuesday.

Boniface, together with Juders Yseme and Nissage Martyr, filed the lawsuit in 2017 under the Torture Victim Protection Act, a 1991 US law that allows civil lawsuits to be brought against foreign officials accused of wrongdoing, if all legal avenues in their homelands have been exhausted.

It was filed by the Center for Justice and Accountability in San Francisco.

The defense had argued that Viliena was not involved in violence and had in fact increased services while leading Les Irois, a town of around 22,000 people about 140 miles from the capital Port-au-Prince.

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National Statistical Office (NSO) representatives from Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Member States gathered in Barbados on March 20 and March 21 for the final Project Steering Committee meeting of the Canada-funded Project for the Regional Advancement of Statistics in the Caribbean (PRASC).

Launched in 2015, the CAD$19.5 million initiative, implemented by Statistics Canada, worked to build capacity of NSOs in 14 CARICOM countries and regional institutions to address statistical gaps to improve socio-economic measures and support evidence-based policy making in the Caribbean.

Specifically, the PRASC helped to enhance the Systems of National Accounts by ensuring adherence to international standards; to enhance economic statistics by working on a robust business survey infrastructure; to improve social statistics by incorporating sex-disaggregated socio-economic indicators into household surveys; and, to encourage statistical information and expertise sharing at national and regional levels.

Co-chaired by Global Affairs Canada, Statistics Canada and the CARICOM Secretariat, the two-day Project Steering Committee meeting allowed partners and stakeholders to present key activities and achievements from the eight-year project and to outline future priorities.

In her remarks, Executive Director of Canada’s Caribbean Regional Development Program Sharon Peake referenced the benefits of collaboration between Statistical Offices in the Caribbean to learn from each other post-PRASC. She shared, “This is exactly the sort of vision and proactive cooperation that is needed to ensure the sustainability of any project – especially like PRASC which has invested CAD$19 million into the region over the past eight years.”

Meeting participants included NSO representatives from Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Montserrat, Saint Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago as well as the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, the Caribbean Development Bank, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, the International Monetary Fund and the United Nations Population Fund.

Regional Director of Statistics at the CARICOM Secretariat Halim Brizan noted, “PRASC has provided capacity building and technical assistance that have contributed to strategic drivers in the Regional Statistics Development Strategy.” Participating NSOs recognized the tangible benefits of PRASC to the region, referencing the extensive support Statistics Canada provided for development of their websites in an effort to bring data closer to citizens. They also noted that, through PRASC, they are now able to provide accurate, reliable and much needed data in a timelier manner. In some cases, results from surveys are made available within one month after data validation.

The PRASC, which formally concludes in September 2023, reflects a shared commitment by the Government Canada and CARICOM to advance gender equality and environmental sustainability in the Caribbean by enhancing social infrastructure and social services at the national level and regional levels.

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The Working Groups on Spawning Aggregations and Queen Conch of the Western Central Atlantic Fishery Commission (WECAFC), convened hybrid meetings on 14-15 and 16 March respectively in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The meetings were led by WECAFC, a regional fisheries body established under the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). However, the Caribbean Fishery Management Council, and The United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service provided support for the meetings.

The implementation of the Regional Fish Spawning Aggregation Fishery Management Plan (RFSAMP) and the Regional Queen Conch Fisheries Management and Conservation Plan for the WECAFC region were the two main important discussion topics.

The two discussion topics of the hybrid meetings attracted 45 government officials and scientists from 13 member States, including, Bahamas, Belize, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States of America. Also in attendance were regional and international partners, including, the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM), French Institute for Ocean Science, Regional Activity Centre for the Protocol Concerning Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife for the Wider Caribbean Region, Central American Fisheries and Aquaculture Organization and Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

Spawning aggregations, which refers to the massive gatherings of adult fish for breeding purposes, is critical to the survival of the fisheries sector in the region as many fisherfolk depend on the fishing industry for their livelihood.

During the process of spawning, the fish, in either single or multiple species releases sperm or eggs for the purpose of reproduction at the same place and time. Normally this occurs around objects such as drifting flotsam, rafts, jellyfish and floating seaweed, which offers refuge for juvenile fish from predators.

The spawning aggregations of reef fish, mainly groupers and snappers, have high ecological, biological and socio-economic value. Not only do spawning fish and their offspring benefit, but also the influx of eggs creates a nutrient rich food source for other animals, which contributes to supporting a healthy ecosystem and enhancement of the marine biodiversity in the region.

While countries have boundaries, many reef fish species including groupers, snappers, and parrotfish have none. They can transcend boundaries of over 40 nations, which are connected by ocean currents and intertwined economies, making them potentially available for catch to several countries and fisherfolk.

Millions of people in communities and nations throughout the Western Central Atlantic depend on these coral reef fisheries for food security and sustainable livelihoods from fishing and tourism industries. The lack of regional awareness of the vulnerability of spawning aggregations to fishing and insufficient management of aggregating species are contributing to declines in most areas. Therefore, reversing the trends in the declines of these species that aggregate to spawn, with an initial focus on mutton snapper and the threatened Nassau grouper, is a critical aspect requiring timely enforcement of the measures undertaken by the RFSAMP.

Yvonne Sadovy, one of the leading experts in the development of the RFSAMP stressed, “To effectively manage aggregating species, it is essential to ensure the survival of their spawning aggregations. These are the only times and places such species produce their young. These young fish support fisheries far-and-wide across the region, and well beyond the aggregations themselves. So we need to ‘mainstream’, or integrate, aggregation protection and management at both national and regional levels into fishery and conservation planning, through existing legislation, and by applying the multiple agreements and commitments made around sustainable use and biodiversity conservation”.

Alejandro Acosta, Researcher, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission stated, “This meeting was great and allowed us to share perceptions and experiences about the status of Fisheries Stock Assessment methods (FSA) in the Caribbean region. A major outcome was reviewing and updating the recommendations for the sustainability of Fish Spawning Aggregations. Two major take away points from the meeting were the need to implement and increase the outreach programs about the ecological, social and economic benefits of FSA and to encourage and expedite the implementation of the Focus on Nassau Grouper and Mutton Snapper (FSAMP) throughout the region”.

Meanwhile, the objectives of the sixth meeting of the Queen Conch Working Group (QCWG) were to monitor the implementation of the various queen conch recommendations and resolutions, and continue monitoring the implementation of the Regional Queen Conch Fisheries Management and Conservation Plan. During the meeting, the importance of Queen Conch on the socio-economic and environmental sectors of the wider Caribbean region was re-emphasized.

Mauro Gongora, Fisheries Officer in the Belize Fisheries Department expressed, “Belize is pleased to participate in this meeting and remains dedicated to the sustainable management of the queen conch resource. We endeavour to work with our stakeholders and especially our fishers to continue implementing the management measures outlined in the Regional Queen Conch Conservation and Fishery Management Plan”.

Maren Headley, Programme Manager, Fisheries Management and Development, the CRFM Representative and Convener of the QCWG added that, “CRFM welcomes the outputs of the sixth QCWG meeting and is pleased to collaborate with the working group partners. CRFM is looking forward to the commencement of the queen conch genetic study which will give us a clearer picture of the resource connectivity between the countries and help us to combat the Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated fishing (IUU) fishing.”

Yvette Diei Ouadi, Secretary of WECAFC expressed immense satisfaction with the dedicated inter-sessional efforts by the working group members and the level of engagement that enabled them to meet the objectives of both meetings. She stated, “This sustained quality work is amply recognized in international fora”. She added, “The Decision 19 of the CITES Conference of Parties on queen conch now requires that progress reports on activities of Range States to the CITES Secretariat be made to the QCWG. The Secretariat will then report on progress by the Working Group to the Animals Committee and Standing Committee, which avoids a double reporting”.

The outcome of the deliberations will be tabled for discussion at the 19th Session of the Commission scheduled for 6-8 September 2023, to ensure that the actual benefits of these fisheries for food and nutrition security, income earning, livelihoods and healthy ecosystems are effectively secured and protected.

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