During a presentation to the 2022 International Seminar of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), Director General of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States Dr. Didacus Jules called for greater institutional strengthening of the agency.
Dr. Jules, who spoke under the Seminar’s theme ‘Latin America and the Caribbean, the future of integration’, said “the most important thing about CELAC and the greatest contribution that CELAC can make not just to our region but to the world is integration for peace. In the long march of history, humanity has faced episodic catastrophe that seemed in that generational moment to signal the end of the world, but life has continued.”
“The difference between these past episodes and today is that we have reached a tipping point of no return in our insensitivity to the delicate balance of nature. The climate change crisis is real and in its skill and intensity of global proportions, no continent is spent and no location is isolated,” he added.
The seminar focused on facilitating discussions on presence of integration opportunities within CELAC, and the role the organisation plays globally.
Speaking to the urgent international challenges facing the region at this time, Dr. Jules continued his remarks by contextualising the realities facing the organisation.
“We find ourselves at this inflection point today with globalisation in tatters, with regionalization becoming increasingly an amphitheater of both convergences of common interest and contestation for better advantage. In the face of the multidimensional crises confronting us in this historical moment, it is urgent that we who are committed to CELAC revisit and sharpen our sense of purpose … Our why must be clear enough that it justifies the effort and focuses the agenda” he said.
Dr. Jules added that the process of determining a more clinical, decisive and incisive purpose for CELAC must be grounded and informed by an understanding of history, and effectively “define the contours of the integration ambition”.
During the seminar he also provided several recommendations on these matters on behalf of the OECS.
Including, an increase in the political muscle of CELAC and its membership and the avoidance of bureaucratic processes that have been criticised for hindering progress within the CELAC space.