分类： society

Antigua and Barbuda has been selected as the host nation for the biannual Executive Committee meeting of the Council of Legal Education (CLE), scheduled for January 30-31, 2026. The high-level gathering will convene at the prestigious St. James Club and Villas, marking a significant moment for Caribbean legal education collaboration.

Established over five decades ago, the Council of Legal Education maintains its critical role in standardizing legal training across Caribbean nations while ensuring adherence to the highest ethical benchmarks within the profession. The Executive Committee functions as the primary administrative and strategic authority, directing regional legal education policies, overseeing law school operations, and formulating long-term developmental strategies.

The upcoming summit will bring together Executive Committee members and Attorneys General from throughout the Caribbean region for intensive strategic dialogues. Key agenda items include enhancing operational effectiveness of CLE-affiliated law schools, addressing financial sustainability challenges, reviewing regulatory frameworks, and advancing the broader mission of legal education excellence across the Caribbean basin.

Hon. Sir Steadroy ‘Cutie’ Benjamin, Minister of Legal Affairs and Attorney General, expressed profound honor regarding Antigua and Barbuda’s selection as host nation. ‘This prestigious gathering underscores our nation’s growing prominence in legal education leadership,’ Minister Benjamin stated, reaffirming the government’s dedication to fostering professional excellence and ethical integrity within the legal sector.

The announcement reflects Antigua and Barbuda’s established track record in producing exceptional legal talent, with numerous graduates from regional law schools achieving distinction both within the Ministry of Legal Affairs and through private practice across the Caribbean region. The government anticipates the 2026 meeting will further solidify the nation’s contributions to advancing legal education standards throughout the Caribbean community.

Harold Lovell, the United Progressive Party’s opposition candidate, has issued a stark warning to the government regarding the deteriorating state of public health infrastructure across Antigua and Barbuda. While acknowledging the valuable contribution of newly recruited nurses—including healthcare professionals arriving from Ghana—Lovell emphasized that personnel alone cannot resolve systemic failures when medical facilities remain inadequate.

The politician highlighted a critical contradiction in current health policy: the ongoing recruitment of medical staff while numerous clinics stand either completely closed, structurally unsound, or operationally deficient. According to Lovell, these facilities have remained non-functional for extended periods without clear plans for reactivation, severely hampering healthcare delivery nationwide.

Lovell characterized the government’s approach as prioritizing superficial appearances over substantive solutions, arguing that staffing increases without corresponding infrastructure investment constitute an ineffective strategy. He insisted that genuine improvement requires immediate attention to physical infrastructure deficiencies within the public health system.

“The time has come to cease managing appearances and commence managing healthcare effectively,” Lovell stated, underscoring that clinic and hospital repairs are fundamental prerequisites for any meaningful enhancement of medical services. He maintained that without these foundational improvements, additional staffing would prove insufficient in addressing the healthcare system’s core challenges.

Antigua and Barbuda has initiated a comprehensive public consultation process regarding the groundbreaking Workplace Violence and Harassment (Prevention) Bill 2026, marking a significant step toward enhancing occupational safety standards nationwide. The Ministry of Public Safety, Immigration and Labour is spearheading this initiative to solicit crucial feedback from diverse stakeholders before finalizing the legislation.

The consultation series commenced on January 28 at the Multipurpose Centre, with subsequent sessions scheduled throughout February. The government has organized additional forums at the Villa Community Centre (February 5), JT Ambrose Primary School (February 11), and Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Stadium (February 18). All sessions will convene at 5:30 p.m. to accommodate working professionals.

This legislative proposal represents a transformative approach to workplace safety, extending protection to all employment environments across the twin-island nation. The ministry emphasizes that the bill’s development incorporates perspectives from both employees and employers, ensuring balanced and practical regulations.

Public participation is actively encouraged, with officials noting that constituent input will directly influence the bill’s final provisions. This collaborative process aims to create robust legal frameworks addressing prevention mechanisms, reporting procedures, and enforcement protocols for workplace violence and harassment incidents.

The initiative reflects growing global recognition of psychological safety in professional environments and establishes Antigua and Barbuda as a regional leader in progressive labor reform. The consultations demonstrate the government’s commitment to transparent, inclusive policymaking that prioritizes citizen welfare and economic stability.

The Government of Antigua and Barbuda has announced a significant urban development initiative for the capital city, scheduling a comprehensive public consultation with St. John’s property and business owners for January 29. This gathering represents a coordinated effort to tackle persistent infrastructure, sanitation, and urban management challenges that have affected the city’s development.

Organized by the St. John’s Development Corporation, the consultation will commence at 5:00 PM at the John E. St. Luce Conference Center located on Sir Sydney Walling Highway. The event has been strategically designed to address multiple critical urban issues including urban aesthetics, waste management systems, drainage infrastructure, road conditions, litter control, and the removal of derelict structures.

The government has demonstrated its commitment to this urban renewal project by deploying an impressive roster of senior officials. Participants will include Prime Minister Gaston Browne, Minister for Social and Urban Transformation Rawdon Turner, Attorney General Steadroy Benjamin, Minister of Housing and Works Maria Browne, and Minister of Tourism, Civil Aviation, Transportation and Investment Charles Max Fernandez.

Under the thematic banner “Your City. Your Voice,” organizers are actively encouraging broad participation from all stakeholders invested in St. John’s future development. This initiative marks a collaborative approach between government authorities and community members to develop sustainable solutions for the capital’s urban challenges.

A disturbing pattern of organized wage appropriation is emerging within Antigua and Barbuda’s hospitality industry, where frontline service personnel are systematically deprived of their rightful gratuities. Waitstaff, bartenders, housekeeping teams, and other service providers are routinely denied direct access to tips specifically intended for their service excellence. Instead, these earnings are compulsorily aggregated into centralized pools and redistributed through opaque mechanisms that lack transparent formulas or accountability measures. This structural inequity ensures that those who directly generate customer goodwill through service receive minimal benefits, while management and ownership entities capture disproportionate shares.

The situation has evolved beyond internal labor disputes into a broader tourism credibility crisis. Visitors experience profound disillusionment upon discovering their gestures of appreciation bypass the intended recipients entirely. Many travelers now consciously withhold gratuities to avoid perpetuating what they perceive as institutionalized exploitation. This erosion of trust threatens the fundamental hospitality covenant between guests and service providers.

Adding legal insult to financial injury, several establishments have begun reclassifying gratuities as corporate assets. Workers face disciplinary measures or termination for retaining directly offered tips, with some employers absurdly characterizing such retention as theft. This perverse inversion of justice has cultivated industry-wide apprehension and financial instability among service personnel.

Gratuities and service charges represent customer recognition of individual service excellence, not supplemental revenue streams for ownership entities. Their diversion into general profit margins constitutes economic exploitation in its most unambiguous form.

The phenomenon poses existential reputational risks for Antigua and Barbuda’s tourism economy. In our digitally interconnected era, narratives of worker exploitation disseminate rapidly through travel platforms and social networks. Regulatory inaction implicitly condones these practices, potentially branding the nation as indifferent to labor dignity.

Consequently, we urgently petition the Government of Antigua and Barbuda, the Ministry of Labour, and all relevant regulatory bodies to implement immediate investigative measures, enact unambiguous legislation, and enforce transparent gratuity distribution protocols. Strengthened worker protections and meaningful penalties for violation must be instituted without delay.

Continued tolerance of these practices will not only exacerbate economic inequality within the hospitality sector but also broadcast global indifference to worker welfare. Such perception is fundamentally incompatible with Antigua and Barbuda’s aspiration to be recognized as a world-class tourism destination. The current model is ethically untenable, economically unsustainable, and requires immediate systemic intervention.

ST. JOHN’S, ANTIGUA & BARBUDA – In a significant development for the nation’s tourism sector, Antigua Cruise Port has inaugurated a nationwide initiative titled the ‘Name the Quay’ competition. This public engagement campaign was formally announced on January 28, 2026, coinciding with the grand opening of the port’s expansive new cruise terminal located at the Upland Development site. The project represents a pivotal moment, heralding ‘The Next Chapter’ for cruise tourism in the twin-island nation.

The competition is designed to foster national pride and collective ownership by inviting citizens of Antigua and Barbuda, including those within the diaspora, to propose a permanent name for the terminal’s quay. This endeavor provides a unique platform for the populace to contribute directly to the narrative of the country’s tourism evolution. Organizers are seeking a name that profoundly encapsulates the cultural identity, rich heritage, creative spirit, and forward-looking aspirations of the nation.

According to the published guidelines, participation is open to all Antiguans and Barbudans. Each entry must be an original creation, not currently in official use within the country, and must be accompanied by a concise explanation not exceeding 100 words. The core mandate is that submissions should resonate with national symbolism and exhibit suitability for enduring public use.

An expert panel will evaluate all proposals based on a stringent set of criteria. Key factors include the depth of reflection of Antiguan and Barbudan culture, the clarity and strength of its symbolic meaning, originality, phonetic ease, and timeless appeal. The ultimate authority for the final selection rests solely with Antigua Cruise Port.

As a grand incentive, the winner will be awarded a cruise trip for two. This prize offers an experiential journey, allowing the recipients to be among the first to embark on a homeporting cruise from the newly named facility. Prospective participants are encouraged to contact Antigua Cruise Port directly to obtain the official entry form and detailed information. The submission deadline is firmly set for February 28, 2026. The port authority has stated that standard terms and conditions apply, noting its exclusive right to amend or reject any submission without guarantee of selection.