Beckles: I was invited to speak at UNGA

OPPOSITION Leader Pennelope Beckles said she was invited to speak at several events at the United Nations General Assembly in New York from September 23-29.

Speaking at a media conference at the Office of the Opposition Leader, Charles Street, Port of Spain, on October 1, she said the discussions centred around the theme of the event: Better Together: 80 Years for Peace, Development and Human Rights.

“…the key aspects being marking the 80th anniversary, reminding about global commitments and underscoring the importance of multilateralism.

“I was invited to speak by the Inter-Parliamentary Union and I moderated a panel on achieving gender equality, gender-responsive assemblies.”

She said as president of the Women’s Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago, it was significant for her to interact with female parliamentarians from Latin America, Africa and other parts of the world.

“They are sharing with you the importance of women in Parliament and women leaders.

“Many people were fascinated by the fact that TT is probably the only country where you have a woman president, a woman prime minister and a woman leader of the opposition, which people asked me a lot of questions about.

“They also shared that this is 30 years since the Beijing platform where you looked at the increased participation of women in politics and they’re looking at the fact that at that time 30 years ago we were at 11 per cent and now we only have 26 per cent.”

She said the issue of domestic violence was also raised, including the murder of young women in TT.

“People read these things, now that you have technology and of course the statement made by the Prime minister about the amount of murders and so that, that took place in TT over the last couple years, so I spoke about that.”

Beckles said she attended the UN Women meeting where they looked at the progress on the sustainable development (SDGs) particularly as it relates to gender equality.

“…because at the end of the day when you go and report at the UN, you really want to talk about how your country has done as it relates to all of these SDGs, of which women of course is one.

“I also attended the Aspire Artemis Foundation (AAF), a Microsoft building that spoke about how women leadership has shaped climate resilience, digital equity and cultural diplomacy, building bridges for trade, innovation and diplomacy.

“I also attended with Worldwide Technology to talk about renewable energies, and I attended the Health Innovative exchange. We specifically talked about connecting the unconnected and building shared infrastructure, climate health resilience through innovation, and financing.”

Beckles said she also had the opportunity to meet with members of the diaspora.

“Many of them are very concerned and genuinely in a panic about what is going in TT as it relates to Venezuela and more importantly, having had the opportunity themselves to hear what the prime minister said in this recent statement, and they genuinely fear as to what can happen. I think all of us want this to remain a zone of peace, because when the prime minister says that’s a false ideal, you can well imagine how people are beginning to feel.”

Based on the prime minister’s remarks regarding climate change, Beckles questioned whether TT would withdraw from the Paris Agreement regarding climate change.

“October is always a very interesting month for us, because that is one of the months where the rainy season is there, we are seeing flooding taken place in parts of TT that we traditionally did not expect, we are seeing in 15-20 minutes, Port of Spain is literally under water, and I am sure every one of you here is paying attention to the fact that it is being attributed to climate change.

“I mean whether we look at what is happening in terms of agriculture, when you have flowering, when you can’t get produce, and we know the relationship between climate change and agriculture, the availability of food and all those things are relevant for us, so I was really quite surprised by that statement.”

She said the prime minister mentioned that the antagonistic approach adopted by climate activists toward the implementation of their climate agenda does more harm than good.

“We know the President of the US has always made it clear that he does not support the Paris Agreement, if I remember clearly, he’s going to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. Now when I listen to what the PM said, the question I asked myself is if that is going to be our position, whether this government is going to withdraw from the Paris Agreement?”