分类： world

Belizean Students in Venezuela to Return Home

In the wake of catastrophic back-to-back earthquakes that have left Venezuela reeling from widespread destruction and human loss, the government of Belize has announced plans to repatriate all of its citizens studying in the South American nation. Belize’s Foreign Affairs Minister Francis Fonseca confirmed the evacuation order in an official statement delivered Wednesday, noting that all five Belizean students currently enrolled in Venezuelan educational institutions have been confirmed unharmed, but will return to their home country due to the continued hazardous and unstable conditions across the affected regions.

“This is a profound human tragedy,” Fonseca shared in his remarks. “Our hearts go out to the Venezuelan people who are enduring this unimaginable disaster. We stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters there, and we are actively coordinating with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to organize and deliver much-needed relief assistance to support response and recovery efforts.”

Fonseca explained that Belize’s ambassador to Venezuela, Annie Lou Burns, has maintained constant communication with the students alongside teams from Belize’s Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Education to monitor their situation closely. “We have received consistent updates that all of our students are safe and accounted for,” he said. “Nevertheless, given the extremely difficult living conditions across Venezuela right now, we have made the decision that evacuating them back to Belize is the best course of action to ensure their ongoing safety and well-being. We expect them to arrive home in the very near future.”

As of the latest official update from the Venezuelan government, the confirmed death toll from the earthquakes has climbed to at least 2,295. More than 11,000 people have been reported injured, and an estimated 50,000 people remain unaccounted for in the aftermath of the quakes. While search and rescue operations are still ongoing across the hardest-hit areas, multiple independent observers have raised concerns about the accuracy of the official death count. Forensic investigators, opposition political figures, and United Nations officials have all warned that the actual number of fatalities is likely significantly higher than the figure published by Venezuelan authorities, as rescue teams continue to pull bodies from collapsed buildings and debris fields.

2 7 月, 2026
Cuba seeks UN debate on US embargo, accuses Washington of trying to block July 7 session

Decades of diplomatic and economic estrangement between Cuba and the United States are set to return to the center of the global stage next week, after Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez confirmed that Havana has officially submitted a request for a special United Nations General Assembly session on July 7 to confront the long-standing U.S. embargo against the Caribbean island.

Speaking at a formal press conference, Rodríguez laid out Havana’s core objective for the upcoming session: to force the international community to confront the crippling humanitarian toll that the 60-plus-year U.S. restrictive policy has inflicted on the Cuban people, the Cuban Embassy noted in an official press statement released after the event.

Beyond laying out the harms of the embargo, Rodríguez issued a sharp rebuke of the United States, accusing the Biden administration of launching a coordinated, global diplomatic pressure campaign to derail the upcoming debate entirely. The Cuban foreign minister argued that U.S. officials have leveraged threats, blackmail, and diplomatic coercion to pressure other UN member states to oppose the special session and boycott its proceedings.

According to Rodríguez, the cumulative damage of the U.S. sanctions regime has steadily worsened for Cuban civilians, with impacts felt in every sector of daily life across the island. He rejected long-standing U.S. justifications for the embargo, labeling the United States’ multi-faceted campaign of hostility against Cuba not as a defensive measure, but “a crime against humanity in full swing.”

He went further in his condemnation, calling the targeted U.S. energy embargo and associated restrictive measures an act of genocide that amounts to collective punishment. These policies, he insisted, systematically violate the fundamental human rights of all Cubans and directly contravene established international humanitarian law.

Rodríguez also pushed back against the core narrative the U.S. has relied on to maintain the embargo for decades, noting that Cuba, a small island nation, poses no credible security threat to the United States – the world’s largest military and nuclear power. “The blockade and the policy of aggression and hostility of the United States government against Cuba is a threat to the existence and well-being of the Cuban people, and to the exercise of their human rights,” he emphasized.

Looking ahead to the July 7 vote and debate, Rodríguez pointed to three decades of precedent to justify his expectation of broad international support. The UN General Assembly has passed resolutions condemning the U.S. embargo 31 consecutive times, with each resolution winning overwhelming backing from the body’s 193 member states. That track record, he argued, demonstrates that the global community widely rejects the U.S. policy as a violation of international norms.

Even so, Rodríguez detailed the extent of the U.S. campaign to stop the session. He alleged that the U.S. Permanent Mission to the UN in New York has threatened to pursue legal action to block the General Assembly from convening and deliberating on the embargo issue. He added that the U.S. State Department has mobilized its entire global diplomatic network to suppress discussion of the embargo, an attempt to censor Cuba’s right to raise a matter that directly impacts international peace and security and the survival of an entire nation.

Despite these aggressive tactics, Rodríguez said he remains confident that the overwhelming majority of UN member states will once again stand in solidarity with Cuba when the session convenes. He framed the upcoming debate as a critical opportunity to reaffirm the authority of international law and the core principles enshrined in the UN Charter.

Rodríguez defended the UN General Assembly as the global body best suited to adjudicate the issue, calling it “the most democratic, universal, and representative body of the United Nations” that is capable of addressing the dispute objectively in line with the UN’s founding purposes and values.

Closing his press conference, Rodríguez issued a urgent warning about the rapidly deteriorating situation on the ground in Cuba, driven by intensifying U.S. pressure. “This is an urgent situation because the multidimensional aggression of the United States government against Cuba is already underway and intensifying. Its humanitarian damage is growing, and the suffering and deprivation it inflicts on our people increase every day,” he concluded.

2 7 月, 2026
Russia Launches Massive Overnight Attack on Kyiv, Killing More Than 20

In a large-scale overnight assault that ranks among the most violent attacks on Ukraine’s capital in recent months, Russian forces have killed at least 25 civilians and left dozens more wounded, Ukrainian authorities confirmed early Thursday.

Ukraine’s Air Force reported that the assault was a coordinated combined strike that saw nearly 500 Iranian-designed Shahed drones and more than 70 ballistic and cruise missiles launched across multiple regions of Ukraine, with Kyiv bearing the brunt of the aggression from three separate directions. While Ukrainian air defense teams successfully intercepted the vast majority of incoming projectiles, 33 enemy weapons managed to reach their targets, almost exclusively hitting civilian residential neighborhoods across the capital.

One local resident, Iryna Moskaeva, shared her harrowing experience of escaping her damaged apartment building, saying that powerful explosions shattered all the glass in her unit and initially trapped her and her young children inside before they could find a route out to safety.

Emergency response teams confirmed that strikes hit dozens of locations across Kyiv, including multiple multi-story apartment blocks, a working ambulance station, and other pieces of critical civilian infrastructure. As of Thursday morning, search and rescue operations are still ongoing, with first responders working carefully through piles of rubble to pull out any survivors, and authorities have warned that additional casualties are likely to be found as the work progresses.

Photos and witness accounts from the attack show thousands of Kyiv residents sheltered overnight in deep underground metro stations, as air raid sirens wailed continuously across the city for more than six hours. Many families brought only the essentials with them as they rushed to safety, after being woken by the first explosions across the capital.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky released an official statement shortly after the attack, condemning what he called a deliberate, targeted act of terror against ordinary Ukrainian civilians. He added that entire apartment buildings had been completely leveled by the strikes, and repeated his urgent call for Western military allies to accelerate and expand deliveries of advanced air defense systems to help Ukraine intercept more incoming Russian attacks before they hit populated areas.

In a statement released by Russia’s Ministry of Defense, officials claimed the strikes were a retaliatory action in response to recent cross-border attacks on Russian territory, and asserted that all targets hit were military or energy-related infrastructure sites. However, on-the-ground reporting and official Ukrainian data confirms that 100% of the projectiles that hit targets in Kyiv struck civilian locations, with ordinary residents bearing the full cost of the destruction.

Local emergency management officials have not yet finalized the death toll, and say casualty numbers are expected to climb as rescue teams continue clearing debris from damaged and destroyed buildings across the city.

2 7 月, 2026
Man Rescued Alive from Earthquake Rubble After Eight Days in Venezuela

Eight days after a pair of powerful earthquakes tore through Venezuela, leaving widespread destruction and thousands dead, international and local rescue teams have achieved what many are calling a modern miracle: pulling a 43-year-old man alive from 30 feet of collapsed building debris.

Hernán Alberto Gil Flores, a working security guard, was recovered on Thursday from the crumpled remains of a coastal shopping mall’s parking structure in La Guaira State. The successful rescue capped off a grueling, 70-hour collaborative operation that brought together emergency response crews from Venezuela and multiple partner nations, who deployed cutting-edge specialized locating technology to narrow in on his position before beginning a dangerous, careful tunneling effort through unstable rubble.

Throughout the entire multi-day extraction effort, first responders maintained constant contact with Gil Flores, and sustained his life by delivering a steady supply of clean water, nutritional support, and critical medication through a narrow flexible hose. When crews finally pulled him into the open, the trapped man remained fully conscious and registered stable vital signs, prompting an immediate transfer to a nearby medical facility for evaluation and care.

For Gil Flores’ family, the outcome defied all expectations. His wife, who had spent days grieving and preparing for the worst after losing contact with him immediately after the quake, described the rescue as nothing short of a divine miracle.

Disaster response experts emphasize that surviving more than a full week trapped beneath earthquake debris is an extremely uncommon outcome. Standard disaster statistics show that the probability of locating trapped survivors drops dramatically after the first 72 hours following a major seismic event, making an 8-day survival story all the more remarkable.

The extraordinary rescue comes as the entire nation of Venezuela continues to grapple with the aftermath of the back-to-back earthquakes that struck last week. As of the latest official update, at least 2,295 people have been confirmed killed in the disaster, and government officials have warned that the final death toll is expected to rise considerably as search and recovery teams work through the remaining rubble across affected regions.

2 7 月, 2026
Dominica pledges US$500,000 to Venezuela following devastating earthquakes

In the wake of catastrophic back-to-back earthquakes that left northeastern Venezuela reeling from widespread destruction and heavy human loss, the Commonwealth of Dominica has stepped forward with urgent humanitarian support. Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit announced Thursday during an official press briefing that his government has greenlit an initial $500,000 financial donation to aid Venezuela’s disaster recovery efforts.

Skerrit emphasized that this contribution embodies the core values of cross-border solidarity and collaborative action when communities face existential crisis. “Venezuela has always been a valued friend, a neighbor,” he noted, extending the deep sympathy and collective solidarity of the Dominican people to both the Venezuelan government and the public grappling with the aftermath of the disaster.

The powerful seismic events hit northeastern Venezuela within hours of one another on June 24, 2026. The quakes reduced thousands of residential structures and public infrastructure to ruins, disrupted critical basic services, and forced panic-stricken local residents to evacuate into open streets for safety. As of the latest updates, global media outlets have confirmed that the death toll has surpassed 2,200, with more than 11,000 people sustaining injuries, and tens of thousands still remain unaccounted for amid the rubble.

Venezuelan authorities continue to work to map the full scale of destruction, even as persistent aftershocks hamper relief operations across affected regions. Emergency response teams have remained on the ground around the clock conducting search-and-rescue missions and preliminary damage evaluations, while the national government has mobilized all available resources to deliver aid to impacted communities. Skerrit acknowledged the immense scale of the challenge ahead, stressing that recovery will be an enormous uphill task for Venezuela’s government and its people.

Bilateral ties between Dominica and Venezuela have remained strong and cooperative for decades. Skerrit’s government has repeatedly extended political support to Caracas through past electoral processes, and has even offered to act as a neutral mediator to facilitate dialogue between Venezuela and the United States. For its part, Venezuela has been a key partner in Dominica’s national development, providing consistent assistance through regional integration frameworks including the PetroCaribe oil initiative and the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA).

2 7 月, 2026
SVG pledges US$100,000 to CARICOM response to Venezuela quakes

In the wake of two powerful back-to-back earthquakes that struck Venezuela last week, St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) Prime Minister Godwin Friday has reaffirmed the Caribbean nation’s unwavering solidarity with Venezuela, committing US$100,000 to regional relief efforts coordinated by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

Delivering an official address to SVG’s Parliament on Thursday, Friday framed the June 24 quakes as among the deadliest natural disasters Venezuela has faced in modern history, with the full scope of human tragedy and infrastructural damage continuing to emerge days after the event. As of one week post-disaster, official counts place the death toll near 2,300, with more than 11,000 people injured and over 4,500 requiring ongoing hospital care. The United Nations has warned that the final death toll could climb above 10,000 as search-and-recovery operations progress and the odds of locating additional survivors drop sharply.

“That is a horrific disaster, and a toll that is hard to comprehend,” Friday told members of parliament, noting that statistics alone cannot capture the full weight of the crisis. “Numbers never tell the full story in a disaster… many survivors will carry the trauma of this event with them, perhaps for the rest of their lives.” Beyond human loss, the quakes left widespread destruction across housing, public utilities, and critical infrastructure, including widespread damage in the capital city of Caracas and other hard-hit regions.

To stay apprised of on-the-ground conditions, SVG has maintained consistent communication through its diplomatic presence in Venezuela. SVG’s ambassador to Caracas, Gareth Bynoe, has remained in the country to coordinate outreach, providing regular situation updates to SVG’s Foreign Affairs Minister Dwight Fitzgerald Bramble as access allows. Bramble, in turn, has directly contacted Venezuelan diplomatic counterparts to convey official condolences, restate SVG’s solidarity, and confirm the nation stands ready to provide additional support where possible.

Friday stressed that even with significant domestic resource limitations and SVG’s own recent experience with disaster recovery following Hurricane Beryl in July 2024, the small Caribbean nation is committed to stepping up alongside regional partners. CARICOM has organized a unified regional relief response, led by Guyana and supported by the CARICOM Secretariat, and SVG has contributed its pledged $100,000 to this coordinated effort. Friday confirmed that SVG will continue to provide additional assistance both through the regional mechanism and via direct bilateral support moving forward.

The prime minister grounded SVG’s response in the decades-long close relationship between the two nations. Diplomatic and development cooperation between Kingstown and Caracas dates back to the early 1970s, before SVG gained formal independence in 1979, with full diplomatic relations officially established in 1981. “St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Venezuela have long shared an enduring friendship,” Friday said, pointing to generations of cross-border collaboration and partnership. “Given this history, and our shared humanity, Vincentians are called to be our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers at this moment of crisis.”

Extending sympathy beyond Venezuelan borders, Friday expressed condolences to all people affected by the disaster, including nationals of other countries who lost family members or loved ones in the quakes. “We mourn with the bereaved families and further extend our sympathy and support to the injured, displaced, and all those whose lives have been profoundly affected,” he said. He also commended the rapid response from the broader international community, and praised fellow Caribbean states for contributing to relief efforts even amid their own ongoing economic and social challenges.

Closing his address, Friday expressed full confidence in Venezuela’s ability to recover and rebuild from the disaster. “We are confident that they will work through this difficult time and rebuild lives, homes, businesses, and communities,” he said. “May God continue to be with them.”

2 7 月, 2026
Antigua and Barbuda Records Lowest Urban Population in CARICOM

A recent analysis published by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Statistics Agency CARISTATS has uncovered striking variation in urban population shares across the bloc’s 14 member states, challenging common assumptions that economic development correlates directly with higher urbanization rates.

According to 2025 population estimates drawn from the United Nations World Urbanization Prospects dataset, managed by the UN Population Division and accessed via the World Bank, urban population shares across member states span from a low of 24.3% in Antigua and Barbuda to a high of 81.3% in The Bahamas. This puts Antigua and Barbuda at the bottom of the regional ranking for urban population share.

Counter to widespread expectations, the data confirms that a country’s level of economic development does not align with its degree of urbanization. Several small, high-income CARICOM economies actually rank among the most rural in the bloc. Beyond Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Lucia reports just 29.1% of its population living in urban areas, while Saint Kitts and Nevis registers 31.9% urban population. These nations join the lower-income South American member state Guyana, which counts only 26.5% of its residents as urban, at the lower end of the regional ranking.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, The Bahamas leads the region in urban concentration, followed closely by Dominica at 74% and Suriname at 65.8%. In most of these highly urban member states, the vast majority of the population is clustered around a single capital city or along developed coastal belts.

CARISTATS researchers note that much of this wide variation stems not from actual differences in population density, but from divergent national definitions of what qualifies as an “urban” area. Each CARICOM member state sets its own criteria for classifying urban settlements, basing the designation on factors such as minimum settlement population size, administrative status as a town or city, or the dominant type of economic activity in the area. This means that even tightly packed residential development on a small compact Caribbean island can still be officially classified as rural under a country’s own national guidelines.

Overall, the report concludes that for a majority of CARICOM’s population, most residents still reside in areas classified as rural by their national governments, a reality that diverges from the region’s popularly held image as predominantly urbanized.

2 7 月, 2026
Dominican Republic participates in global civil aviation meetings in Morocco

Against a backdrop of growing industry-wide pressures ranging from climate action mandates to rapid technological change, two major international civil aviation gatherings have convened in Rabat, the capital of the Kingdom of Morocco, bringing together aviation leaders from across the globe to align on collective solutions for the sector’s future. The events, which mark the Seventh Meeting of Regional Civil Aviation Organizations and the 29th General Assembly of the Arab Civil Aviation Organization (ACAO), drew participation from a broad range of nations outside the Arab region, including the Caribbean nation of the Dominican Republic.

Leading the Dominican delegation to the Rabat meetings, Héctor Porcella used the high-profile platform to outline a clear agenda for global aviation stakeholders. Porcella emphasized that fragmented, region-by-region approaches are no longer sufficient to tackle the interconnected challenges that currently shape the civil aviation landscape. Among the most pressing priorities he cited are consistent improvements to global aviation safety standards, accelerated progress toward the sector’s environmental sustainability goals, integration of emerging technological innovations into daily operations, strategic investment in skilled human capital, and the expansion of reliable global air connectivity that links distant markets and communities.

In addition to his remarks on shared sector priorities, Porcella used the gathering to formally reaffirm the long-standing commitment of the Latin American Civil Aviation Commission to deepening cross-regional technical cooperation. He noted that this collaboration is a core building block for advancing the commission’s overarching mission: to develop a global air transport network that is safer, more operationally efficient, and aligned with international climate and sustainability targets.

Beyond plenary sessions and formal addresses, Porcella held a series of closed-door bilateral meetings with leaders from multiple regional and international aviation organizations during the event. These discussions focused on strengthening joint work on key strategic initiatives that will shape the future of global civil aviation in the coming decade, laying the groundwork for future collaborative projects and information sharing between participating regions.

2 7 月, 2026
Regional leaders urge reform of global climate finance system at CDB annual meeting

When top climate finance and development stakeholders gathered for a high-stakes dialogue at the Caribbean Development Bank’s (CDB) 56th Annual Meeting in Nassau, The Bahamas this June, a clear, uncompromising message took center stage: the existing international financial framework is failing Small Island Developing States (SIDS), and transformative systemic reform is non-negotiable to help these climate-vulnerable nations adapt to worsening climate impacts. Held alongside the bank’s week-long gathering of regional and global development leaders from June 1 to 5, 2026, the invite-only discussion titled *“The Breakfast Exchange: A Climate Talk on the Global Economy”* convened a panel of seasoned experts to unpack systemic barriers to equitable climate resourcing and outline actionable pathways forward for at-risk regions across the globe. Moderated by CDB President Daniel M. Best, the conversation centered on the unique and disproportionate threats facing Caribbean SIDS, which rank among the world’s most climate-exposed nations despite contributing almost nothing to historical greenhouse gas emissions. Joining Best on the panel were four key figures shaping global climate action: Ibrahima Cheikh Diong, Executive Director of the UN-backed Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD); Ambassador Selwin Hart, Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on Climate Action and UN Assistant Secretary-General; and Racquel Moses, CEO of the Caribbean Climate-Smart Accelerator (CCSA) and Chair of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) Caribbean. Opening with a stark assessment of global climate investment inequity, Ambassador Hart laid bare the deep imbalance that has defined climate finance flows since the 2015 Paris Agreement was signed. He revealed that 80 percent of all global clean energy investment has flowed to high-income advanced economies, leaving just 20 percent to serve the two-thirds of the global population that calls developing nations home. “The biggest failure in the current global financial architecture is that the system continues to reward the drivers of the climate crisis while penalising those that are vulnerable and contributed the least,” Hart told attendees. Diong expanded on this critique, framing accessible climate finance as a three-pronged challenge that hinges on three non-negotiable pillars: consistent availability, streamlined accessibility, and fair affordability. Too often, he noted, headline-grabbing international funding pledges fail to translate to tangible support on the ground for vulnerable nations, because bureaucratic barriers and unfavorable terms lock countries out of the resources they need in a timely, affordable way. Diong explained that the FRLD, which has secured $820 million in voluntary contributions to date, is designed to upend this broken model. The fund’s first financing facility will offer 100 percent grant-based funding, with a minimum of 50 percent of all resources reserved exclusively for SIDS and Least Developed Countries — a policy designed to ensure recipient nations do not accumulate unsustainable new debt to address climate harms. “The keyword is delivery, delivery, delivery,” Diong emphasized. “We are talking about people’s lives here.” CDB President Best echoed this urgency, warning that Caribbean nations are facing rapidly escalating climate threats while navigating an increasingly volatile global economic landscape that squeezes their ability to invest in resilience. “Development financing delayed is development financing denied,” Best stressed, underscoring the need to speed up the flow of resources to the region. Hart went on to call for a structural shift in how the Caribbean approaches climate finance, arguing that the current model of expecting individual small nations to navigate fragmented accreditation processes for dozens of separate global funding bodies is inefficient and unfair. Instead, he proposed that the CDB take on an expanded, centralized role as the region’s dedicated climate finance coordinator. “CDB should be the region’s climate bank,” Hart said. He also pushed back against the longstanding global practice of using per capita national income as the primary eligibility threshold for grants and low-interest concessional climate financing. Hart pointed out that Caribbean nations including The Bahamas, Barbados, and Antigua and Barbuda are locked out of most concessional funding opportunities despite facing some of the highest climate vulnerability on Earth. Instead of relying on income metrics, Hart argued, climate vulnerability itself should be the core determinant of eligibility for international climate support. Looking ahead to emerging economic opportunities for the region, Moses urged Caribbean governments to proactively capitalize on two fast-growing global trends: the global transition to renewable energy and the exponential expansion of artificial intelligence, which has spurred skyrocketing demand for low-carbon energy to power data centers. “Right now, the biggest thing that’s happening is AI, and they are looking everywhere to find energy for data centres,” Moses noted. “If we explore our true renewable energy potential, we will have excess energy that we can provide.” She warned that the window to seize this economic opportunity is limited, noting, “These things happen in waves, and when this wave is gone, it’s gone.” Echoing Hart’s call for collective action, Moses emphasized that Caribbean nations will achieve far more by collaborating through shared regional institutions than by pursuing fragmented, independent strategies to secure climate finance and economic development. Closing the discussion, Hart offered a note of cautious optimism, tying progress directly to sustained regional cohesion. “Despite this climate crisis, our best days are yet ahead of us — but it requires us as a region to work as a region,” he said. The CDB’s 56th Annual Meeting, which ran from June 1 to 5 in Nassau, featured a full slate of knowledge-sharing sessions focused on addressing the Caribbean’s most pressing development challenges, from climate resilience to economic inequality. A full recording of *“The Breakfast Exchange: A Climate Talk on the Global Economy”* is now available for public viewing on the CDB’s official website and YouTube channel.

2 7 月, 2026
ILO launches first official Haiti mission under Caribbean office’s expanded role

Six months after the International Labour Organization (ILO) shifted oversight of its Haiti engagement to the ILO Decent Work Team and Office for the Caribbean based in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, a senior ILO delegation has arrived in Haiti for the body’s first official visit to the Caribbean nation under the new regional mandate.

Led by Joni Musabayana, director of the Caribbean-based ILO office, and joined by Senior Programming Officer Ingerlyn Caines-Francis, the five-day mission kicked off on June 30, 2026. This visit ushers in a new chapter of collaboration between the ILO and Haiti’s tripartite stakeholders — the national government, employer associations, and labor union representatives — following months of preliminary consultations and joint planning to align on shared national priorities.

The on-the-ground mission comes just over one month after the ILO and Haitian partners signed the landmark 2026-2027 ILO Country Programme for Haiti during a May 14 ceremony in Port of Spain. The two-year framework formalizes the ILO’s technical cooperation commitments to Haiti, and the organization notes the early launch of implementation activities demonstrates its dedication to turning agreed plans into tangible progress alongside Haitian stakeholders. The agreement was signed by all key parties: Haiti’s Minister of Social Affairs and Labour Marc Elie Nelson signed on behalf of the Haitian government; Association of Industries of Haiti (ADIH) President Maulik Radia represented national employers; Yvel Admettre, Secretary General of the Confederation of Public and Private Sector Workers, and Louis Fignole St Cyr, General Secretary of the Autonomous Central of Haitian Workers, signed for Haitian labor organizations; and Musabayana executed the agreement for the ILO.

The country programme outlines five core focus areas for ILO support in Haiti: strengthening inclusive social dialogue and upholding fundamental workers’ rights, building the capacity of national labor institutions and improving governance of the employment sector, expanding productive employment opportunities to drive national economic recovery, bolstering vulnerable household livelihoods, and expanding access to social protection while advancing safer working conditions across all industries.

In remarks ahead of the mission, Musabayana emphasized that the ILO’s top priority is immediate implementation of the commitments laid out in the May programme agreement. “This mission is about moving quickly from agreement to action. Haiti’s tripartite partners have worked with commitment and clarity to define shared priorities for decent work,” Musabayana said. “Today’s discussions confirmed the importance of staying close to workers, employers and institutions on the ground as we support implementation of the country programme. The ILO Caribbean Office is committed to working with Haiti’s constituents through practical technical assistance, social dialogue and partnership.”

Beyond launching new development projects, Musabayana noted that the visit is also intended to deepen long-term collaborative ties between the regional ILO office and national partners across Haiti. “It is important for us to be here, so that the ILO Caribbean Office can deepen its understanding of the realities facing constituents and give effect to our commitment to work with our Haitian partners in a spirit of mutual respect and shared responsibility,” he added.

According to the ILO’s official updates, during the first two days of the mission, the delegation held working meetings with government officials, private sector leaders, and trade union representatives in northern Haiti. Core discussion topics included mapping the country’s most pressing decent work priorities, identifying pathways to strengthen cross-stakeholder cooperation, and outlining practical steps to expand effective social dialogue in industries that serve as the backbone of Haiti’s employment, economic activity, and household livelihoods.

The delegation also conducted site visits to a number of active work places across northern Haiti, allowing ILO officials to gather first-hand insight into the current challenges and opportunities facing Haiti’s industrial and employment sectors. During these on-the-ground visits, the team reviewed existing development initiatives, and explored how enhanced tripartite dialogue between employers, workers, and public institutions can improve workplace relations, build mutual trust, and foster greater economic and labor stability across the country.

The transfer of Haiti oversight to the ILO Caribbean Office took effect in January 2026, expanding the office’s mandate to cover 14 ILO member states and nine non-metropolitan territories across the English- and Dutch-speaking Caribbean. The ILO notes that the broader mandate is designed to streamline regional coordination and deliver more timely, responsive technical support to Haiti and other Caribbean partner nations.

The Haiti mission is scheduled to conclude on July 4, 2026, and will include additional working meetings with tripartite stakeholders and visits to ongoing ILO-supported development projects across the country. Citing ongoing national security concerns, the ILO has declined to disclose specific locations of mission activities to protect the safety of delegates and local partners.

Moving forward, the ILO reaffirmed that its work in Haiti will remain rooted in its core global mandate: advancing decent work and social justice through tripartite cooperation between governments, employers, and workers. Under the new country programme, the organization will continue to support Haiti’s national efforts to strengthen labor institutions, expand social protection coverage, create inclusive employment opportunities, boost livelihoods, and advance productive social dialogue aligned with Haiti’s long-term national development priorities.

2 7 月, 2026