Black Immigrant Daily News

Cubans headed to the polls on Sunday for parliamentary elections in which the results are a foregone conclusion but with the abstention rate the real issue in play.

As many as eight million eligible voters will select from the 470 candidates on the ballot box vying for the 470 seats in the National Assembly.

What is really in play is the number of Cubans who refuse to vote.

The opposition has called on Cubans to abstain, with one opposition Twitter account calling the vote a “farce.”

Voting is not obligatory and abstention has risen steadily in recent years.

Municipal elections in November attracted a turnout of just 68.5 per cent, down from the 74 per cent who voted two months earlier in a referendum on a new family code, and even further down from the 90 per cent in the 2019 referendum on a new constitution.

Cuba’s communist government does not allow opposition, so most of the parliamentary candidates — made up of 263 women and 207 men — are members of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC).

Dissident Manuel Cuesta Morua, a member of the Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba, said that “a sociological force is becoming the largest political party in the country: the abstentionist party.”

In reality, candidates still need to receive 50 per cent of votes to be elected.

Voters have two choices on their ballots: they can tick the names of any number of individual candidates, or they can select the “vote for all” option.

“I voted for the unified vote because, despite the needs, the difficulties that this country can have, I could not imagine” abstaining, Carlos Diego Herrera, a 54-year-old blacksmith in Havana, told AFP.

He said abstaining would be like voting “for those that want to crush us, the Yankees.”

The United States has imposed sanctions on the island nation since 1962, three years after the communist revolution that saw Fidel Castro take power after overthrowing the US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista.

Student Rachel Vega, 19, said she had also voted for all the candidates, considering it “a step forward right now” that would “improve the situation in the country.”

President Miguel Diaz-Canel is among the candidates, as is his predecessor, the 91-year-old Raul Castro.

“With the united vote we defend the unity of the country, the unity of the revolution, our future, our socialist constitution,” said Diaz-Canel, 62, after voting in Santa Clara, a town 175 miles (280 kilometers) southeast of Havana.

More than 23,000 voting offices opened their doors at 7 am (1100 GMT) and will stay open until 6 pm.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

The Blue Justice Caribbean Hub, a regional hub to strengthen cooperation and coordination in the use of innovation and digital technology to fight fisheries crimes, was launched on the occasion of the two-day International Blue Justice Conference 2023, which concluded Friday in UN City, Copenhagen, Denmark.

The establishment of the Blue Justice Caribbean Hub in Jamaica is the latest in a series of advancements by the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) and its Member States in combating illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing and transnational organized crime in the fishing industry.

In May 2021, the CRFM Ministerial Council at its 15th Regular Meeting adopted the Resolution Regarding the Copenhagen Declaration on Transnational Organized Crime in the Global Fishing Industry and the Blue Justice Initiative.

In October 2021, 12 CRFM Member States signed the Declaration together. Several of those Ministers participated in the Blue Justice Conference 2023, during which two more CRFM Member States–Barbados and Dominica–became signatories to the international declaration.

“This climate-sensitive sector straddles the kaleidoscope of coloured economies, unfortunately including the black economy–an economy, of course, bedeviled with illegal activities such as drug and human trafficking and unregulated and unreported fishing, which have often posed a significant challenge in the sector worldwide,” said Adrian Forde, Minister of the Environment and National Beautification, Barbados, in signing the declaration.

Minister Adrian Forde – Barbados signed the Declaration remotely Photo: CRFM

Milton Haughton, CRFM Executive Director, said: “The fish stocks in our waters not only provide a significant source of food and nutrition for our people, but also contribute substantially to livelihoods, economic activities, trade, recreation, culture, and the socio-economic stability of many rural communities. However, the pillaging and plundering of our marine resources … undermine the investments and sacrifices of our governments and stakeholders to protect, manage, and use our fisheries resources sustainably, to improve food and nutrition security, eradicate poverty, and promote economic development.”

Chairman of the CRFM Ministerial Council, Parmanand Sewdien, Minister of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry & Fisheries, Suriname said: “We see that the perpetrators are increasingly making use of sophisticated technology, to carry out these nefarious activities in our waters and across our region… The Blue Justice Platform is providing insights into the movement of vessels in the region and creating a basis for greater collaboration and sharing of information.”

“We welcome and support the intention of Jamaica to function as the regional Hub,” Minister Sewdien added.

Delegates from Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, as well as Saint Kitts and Nevis, added their public endorsement while pledging their full support to the Blue Justice Caribbean Hub during the proceedings.

Pearnel Charles Jr, Minister of Agriculture & Fisheries, Jamaica, then outlined the importance of the Blue Justice Caribbean Hub to food security, national security, and social mobility. He underscored that reducing illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing will translate to the sustainability of fish stocks and improved livelihoods for fishers.

Minister Charles explained that although Jamaica will host the Hub, it will also identify and appoint at least one superuser on the Blue Justice Community to follow up with other registered Caribbean countries to connect under the Blue Justice Caribbean Hub. National focal points will also be identified.

Dr. Emma Witbooi, Project Manager, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) – Blue Resilience Project, said: “The Blue Resilience Project is very proud to be supporting the establishment of regional Blue Justice Hubs globally–of which the Caribbean Hub is the first. These Hubs will essentially be nodes for developing and sustaining capacity on interagency cooperation to address fisheries crime both in the host country and between the countries of the region. The Hub will serve the specific needs identified by the countries in the region, and this is exactly what we’ve heard here today.”

Ava Whyte-Anderson – Deputy Resident Representative, UNDP Multi Country Office in Jamaica, commended the CARICOM governments for their demonstrated commitment to ending illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing and the Caribbean’s “sizeable contribution to the achievement of SDG 14 (Life below water).”

“UNDP along with our partners are committed to providing the requisite resources at the national and regional levels to ensure the Hub reaches its full potential,” said Whyte-Anderson.

Gunnar St?lsvik, Specialist Director, Fisheries Department, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries – Norway, commended the Caribbean ministers for the passage of the Ministerial Resolution. “It shows that that region is really taking this seriously and has a clear roadmap in the implementation of this… going from words to action,” he added.

Minister Jullan Defoe – Dominica signed in Copenhagen, Denmark. Photo: Blue Justice Secretariat / UNDP

St?lsvik announced the latest signatories to the declaration: the Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Madagascar, and Barbados, which signed remotely, and Somalia, Angola, Tuvalu, Guinea, as well as the Commonwealth of Dominica, which signed at the event. He said that Thailand was also in the process of signing. H.E. Bj?rnar Selnes Skjaeran, Minister of Fisheries and Ocean Policy, Norway, said that with the new signings, the total number of signatories to the Copenhagen Declaration had surpassed 60.

“On behalf of all the members, I will–as depositor for the Copenhagen Declaration–thank you all for your strong support, and I will also thank our new members for their support,” said Minister Skjaeran as he welcomed them to the global fight and to the Blue Justice family.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

WTO members voiced their views on the outcomes they would like to see from the second wave of fisheries subsidies negotiations in meetings during the first of a series of “Fish Weeks” held on 20-24 March.

The meetings pave the way for deeper discussions next month on the best approaches for curbing subsidies contributing to overcapacity and overfishing. The chair of the negotiations, Ambassador Einar Gunnarsson, said members engaged with a positive spirit to lay down the foundation for coming to an agreement by the 13th Ministerial Conference scheduled for February 2024.

“I think it was a very successful first Fish Week,” Ambassador Gunnarsson said at the close of the week, speaking at a meeting of the Negotiating Group on Rules attended by heads of WTO delegations. “It has been illuminating to listen to members. I noticed members’ positive spirit and the willingness to understand each other.”

“I have seen this first week as devoted to discussing what we want to get out of this second wave of negotiations. As the next logical step, I see our second Fish Week in April as the beginning of our discussions of how to get to the result we want,” he said.

Deputy Director-General Angela Ellard welcomed members’ engagement. “I thank everyone for their enthusiastic participation and their constructive spirit throughout this week. I’m gratified that members appreciated the process and transparency that was used this week. I’m also glad members took the opportunity to exchange views among themselves. We clearly had a very thorough discussion on the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ and now we need to begin on the ‘how.’”

The chair said he conducted numerous bilateral consultations, along with four small group meetings which were open for listening mode to those not invited as speakers, and two plenary meetings for the whole membership.

Members recognized that ensuring the sustainability of fish stocks is the shared objective. Members also noted the significance of all three dimensions of sustainability, namely environmental, social and economic. Against this background, the chair said there is a widely held view that the disciplines concerning overcapacity and overfishing should focus on the most harmful subsidies. One recurring theme was subsidies provided to large-scale industrial fishing. Members also debated the relevance of concepts such as the Polluter Pays Principle and the Principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibility.

Members also acknowledged that special and differential treatment (SDT) is an integral part of the negotiations. There was a general call to safeguard the livelihood and food security of small-scale and artisanal fishers. The chair noted that some members see SDT as the means to help developing and LDC members comply with substantive disciplines, while others are of the view that SDT should provide such members with policy space to develop their fishing sectors. Many members stated that they do not seek policy space to pursue subsidies that undermine sustainability.

As for the chair’s consultations with members on setting up the Committee on Fisheries Subsidies, delegations considered it important for this technical work to start early so that members will be well-prepared when the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, which was adopted at MC12 in June 2022, enters into force. The chair said he will continue to reflect on the appropriate modalities for this work. Formal acceptances from two-thirds of WTO members are needed for the Agreement to come into effect.

Many delegations reported that they are optimistic about depositing their acceptance of the Agreement soon. Many other members noted that they expect to make donations to the WTO Fisheries Funding Mechanism very soon to help developing and LDC members meet their obligations.

The second Fish Week will be held on 25-28 April.

The chair said that while it would be most productive to maintain a conceptual focus for the meetings, it could be helpful for members to have, as a reference, a list of elements from the previous negotiations that were not reflected in the Agreement adopted at MC12. He encouraged members considering new formulations to bring them to the table soon to inform the discussions in April.

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