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  • AgriConnect initiative launched in Jamaica to boost digital agriculture and support small farmers

    AgriConnect initiative launched in Jamaica to boost digital agriculture and support small farmers

    In a high-profile gathering held in Kingston that brought together key stakeholders from across Jamaica’s agricultural and food sectors, the World Bank Group (WBG) has officially launched its landmark AgriConnect initiative, a global project designed to upgrade connectivity in rural communities, expand digital access for agricultural producers, and connect small-scale family farmers to formal national and international markets. The launch event was supported by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), a long-standing regional partner for agricultural development across the Americas, and featured opening remarks from Jamaica’s Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, Floyd Green.

    Senior representatives from multiple international institutions joined the launch, including Lilia Burunciuc, Kent Coipel, Benoît Bosquet, and Diego Arias, who used the occasion to reaffirm the deep collaborative partnership between their organizations and shared commitment to advancing sustainable, inclusive agricultural growth across the Caribbean region. During opening discussions, attendees centered the critical function of family farming in Jamaica’s national food supply, while also openly addressing the long-standing structural challenges that have held the sector back.

    The Jamaican launch of AgriConnect is just one component of the WBG’s broader global effort to modernize agrifood systems worldwide. The initiative has set an ambitious target to reach up to 300 million smallholder farmers across the globe by 2030, with the core goal of supporting producers to transition from low-yield subsistence farming to more productive, commercially viable operations that can generate stable incomes and lift rural communities out of poverty.

    Minister Green framed the launch of AgriConnect as a transformative opportunity for Jamaica, noting that the initiative’s core vision aligns perfectly with the Jamaican government’s ongoing national efforts to build a more resilient, inclusive, and modern agricultural industry. He also did not shy away from outlining the unique challenges Jamaica faces: as a small open economy, the country struggles with limited access to affordable financing for small-scale producers. Like other Caribbean island nations, Jamaica is also on the frontlines of climate change, facing increasingly frequent and severe extreme weather events that threaten crop yields and disrupt production. At the same time, the country is working to shore up domestic food security and cut its heavy reliance on imported food products.

    Speaking on behalf of IICA, Kent Coipel outlined the organization’s decades-long work supporting small and medium-sized agricultural producers across the Caribbean and Latin America. IICA’s core efforts focus on strengthening agricultural value chains, with targeted programming in producer training, export readiness, and expanding access to formal regional and global markets. “Strengthening the organizational capacity of rural communities is a fundamental pillar of IICA’s technical cooperation,” Coipel said during the event. He added that IICA has already supported critical grassroots initiatives in Jamaica, including helping to form and secure legal recognition for the Jamaican Network of Rural Women Producers, while also promoting cross-community knowledge sharing, professional networking, and improved governance for rural producer groups.

    The two-day launch event featured structured working sessions that delved into practical solutions for key challenges facing Jamaican agriculture. One session explored actionable strategies to expand market access for small producers and boost efficiency across domestic food value chains, with insights from Derrick Deslandes, head of the College of Agriculture Science and Education, and industry leader Jacqueline Sharp. A second focused session centered on expanding small producers’ access to emerging agricultural technologies, and exploring the growing role of science and innovation in modernizing Jamaica’s agricultural sector. Contributors to that discussion included Winston Daes, Aura Cifuentes, and Arturo Ramírez, whose private sector firm develops specialized solutions for water management and alternative energy for agricultural operations.

    Across the Americas, IICA is just one of several key international partners backing the World Bank’s AgriConnect initiative. Additional partners include regional development financial institutions, private sector agribusinesses, philanthropic foundations, and global agricultural knowledge organizations. The initiative has already rolled out key regional milestones this year: it was first showcased to stakeholders in Brazil, which is home to nearly four million family farmers, at an IICA office in March. The official regional launch for Latin America and the Caribbean followed in April in Washington, D.C., with participation from IICA Director General Muhammad Ibrahim and dozens of agriculture ministers from across the region.

    Globally, the initiative is backed by an estimated $9 billion in annual financing, with the potential to mobilize an additional $5 billion in private and public investment for agricultural development. These resources are earmarked to strengthen innovation ecosystems, expand accessible financing mechanisms for small producers, and build out the support service infrastructure that smallholder farmers need to thrive.

    The core concept for AgriConnect grew out of a 2023 expert panel convened by the World Bank, which identified agriculture and agribusiness as one of five global sectors with the greatest potential to absorb the large number of young people entering the global workforce over the next decade. Two core priorities anchor the initiative: first, reducing agricultural risk by boosting climate resilience for small producers and building stronger market risk management systems, and second, strengthening end-to-end value chains and accelerating the digital transformation of agriculture through the widespread adoption of digital tools, open access knowledge platforms, and modern production technologies.

    According to IICA’s final summary of the launch, initiatives like AgriConnect are expected to drive greater social inclusion in the agricultural sector, boost the global competitiveness of small and medium-sized producers across the Americas, and support more equitable, sustainable rural development across the region in the coming decades.

  • Climate workshop urges urgent action as Caribbean faces ‘lived reality’

    Climate workshop urges urgent action as Caribbean faces ‘lived reality’

    This week, high-ranking officials from across the Caribbean gathered in Barbados for the Santiago Network Regional Workshop, hosted at the Caribbean Development Bank’s Wildey campus, to sound an urgent alarm over the accelerating climate crisis facing small island developing states (SIDS) and push for immediate, actionable measures to shield at-risk local communities. Against a backdrop of global climate projections showing the planet is on track to warm by close to 3 degrees Celsius this century – far exceeding the 1.5-degree target agreed in the Paris Climate Accords – leaders emphasized that climate breakdown is no longer a distant risk for the region: it is an ongoing, daily crisis reshaping life for Caribbean populations. The workshop centered on scaling demand-driven technical assistance for SIDS and other climate-vulnerable regions, connecting global climate pledges to tangible on-the-ground implementation. Opening the event, Barbados Deputy Prime Minister Santia Bradshaw, who also holds cabinet portfolios for Environment, National Beautification and Fisheries, called out a troubling retreat from global climate ambition, noting that critical resources for adaptation and mitigation are being redirected even as scientific reports confirm the world is drifting toward a catastrophic 3-degree warming threshold. “The world is not on track to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C,” Bradshaw told attendees. “Instead, we are heading closer to a three-degree increase, an outcome with potentially devastating consequences, particularly for vulnerable regions. For the Caribbean, this is not an abstract threat. It is a lived reality.” Outlining Barbados’ ambitious 2035 national climate strategy, Bradshaw stressed that the region can no longer rely on passive advocacy alone to drive change. Echoing the consistent stance of Prime Minister Mia Mottley, she noted that Caribbean nations are prepared to lead by example, innovate on climate solutions, and prioritize the protection of their citizens. “As our Prime Minister Mottley has said repeatedly, we will not be passive in the face of climate change. We will not wait for others to act. We will lead, we will innovate, and we will protect our people. Our region must not only build resilience, we must become a model of resilience,” Bradshaw said. She also laid out specific, measurable national targets to demonstrate the region’s commitment to proactive climate action: by 2030, 85% of all residential housing in Barbados will be engineered to withstand the force of a Category 3 hurricane, and the country will continue expanding what is already the largest electric bus fleet in the Caribbean, cutting transportation emissions while building cleaner, more resilient infrastructure. Following Bradshaw’s address, Caribbean Development Bank Vice President Dr. Isaac Solomon reinforced the critical mission of the Santiago Network, which was created to coordinate global support for addressing climate loss and damage in vulnerable nations. Dr. Solomon emphasized that the network fills a long-unmet gap between non-binding global climate commitments negotiated at UN Climate Change Conferences (COPs) and the concrete, country-led implementation needed to protect communities. Like Bradshaw, he noted that climate loss and damage is not a future scenario – it is an escalating current crisis. “Extreme weather events, sea level rise, flooding, droughts, and heat stress impose recurrent human, social, and economic costs that strain public finances and erode decades of development gains,” Dr. Solomon explained. He argued that while climate finance is an essential component of climate action, funding alone cannot deliver lasting impact without robust, functional institutional frameworks to support it. The Santiago Network’s core role, he said, is to deliver demand-aligned technical assistance that makes ambitious climate action “bankable” for SIDS. “Addressing loss and damage is not only about post disaster response. It is about institutional readiness, strengthening data systems, legal frameworks, inter-agency coordination, and decision-making processes before disasters occur. Finance alone is insufficient without strong systems, data, and institutions,” Dr. Solomon said. The three-day workshop focused on advancing three core priority outcomes to deliver tangible progress: first, supporting country-led identification of specific climate action needs, rather than imposing external priorities; second, improving cross-institutional coordination to cut down on redundant efforts and maximize the impact of limited resources; and third, directly linking targeted technical assistance to accessible concessional climate finance. Both Bradshaw and Solomon closed their remarks by urging all workshop participants to ensure the event translates into real, tangible benefits for Caribbean communities, shifting from years of high-level policy discussions at global COP summits to concrete, on-the-ground action that will protect current and future generations of Caribbean residents from the worst impacts of climate change.

  • Internal fighting across Africa continues to destabilize the region

    Internal fighting across Africa continues to destabilize the region

    In a stark press briefing from United Nations Headquarters in New York, senior UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric has renewed global warnings over the rapidly deteriorating security and humanitarian landscape driven by persistent internal conflicts spanning multiple African nations. The ongoing violence has sent death tolls climbing, forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes, and stretched already overburdened local and international aid agencies to their breaking point.

    The crisis in Sudan remains one of the most pressing emergencies, Dujarric confirmed. Recurrent drone strikes targeting critical infrastructure in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, have paralyzed core humanitarian operations. Just one day after drone attacks targeted Khartoum’s airport and surrounding urban areas, all incoming and outgoing flights remain suspended — a major disruption given the airport’s central role in moving aid workers and life-saving supplies into the country. Dujarric noted that the UN’s on-the-ground team has already resettled in Khartoum to coordinate relief efforts, but the persistent attacks have blocked their ability to deliver support to vulnerable populations.

    Further south in Sudan’s White Nile State, fresh drone strikes hit multiple locations in the city of Kosti, including two fuel stations located in a crowded commercial district, just one day after another fuel station and tanker were hit in the area. The strikes have caused an unconfirmed number of civilian casualties and knocked out critical basic services for local residents. In North Darfur’s El Fasher, the security situation continues to spiral downward: new data from the International Organization for Migration shows that more than 138,000 civilians have fled El Fasher and surrounding rural villages between October 2025 and March 2026 alone, joining the millions of already displaced people across the country.

    Against this backdrop, the UN is reiterating its core demands for all warring parties: an immediate ceasefire, full protection for civilians and civilian infrastructure, and unimpeded, fast access for aid convoys to reach communities in need. “We continue to call for an immediate stop to the fighting; for civilians and civilian infrastructure to be protected, and not be targeted; and for aid to be allowed to reach people swiftly, safely, and without any obstruction,” Dujarric told reporters.

    In the northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Ituri Province, UN-led humanitarian negotiations have scored a small, long-awaited victory: after months of blocked access caused by surging violence, aid groups have been able to resume life-saving food distributions at the Plaine Savo displacement camp, where more than 71,000 displaced people are sheltering. This marks the first large-scale food delivery to the site since December 2025, when a wave of armed clashes cut off all access to the camp. Ahead of the delivery, UN Humanitarian Coordinator Bruno Lemarquis and OCHA Ituri head Carla Martinez traveled to the camp to meet with displaced families, local leaders, and aid partners to assess on-the-ground conditions, and called on all armed and state actors to guarantee permanent safe access for aid groups.

    Even with the resumption of food aid, the situation in Plaine Savo remains dire. Clashes continue to flare in surrounding areas, leaving displaced families facing acute hunger and constant danger. Local reports confirm that at least 21 displaced residents have been killed since December 2025 while venturing into nearby fields to search for food, underscoring the deadly risk civilians face even within camp perimeters.

    The UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC, MONUSCO, has stepped in to support conflict-affected communities beyond humanitarian aid, recently assisting hundreds of people caught in recent armed clashes and escorting final-year secondary students to sit their national exams. At the request of school administrators, 200 students from three schools in Gina, Djugu territory — the site of recent deadly armed clashes between groups including the Convention for the Popular Revolution (CRP) — were escorted by peacekeepers to the provincial capital of Bunia to take their exams. MONUSCO peacekeepers also rescued nearly 200 civilians trapped under CRP fire during the recent violence. After exams conclude on May 7, the students will be escorted back to Gina under armed guard.

    To the north in Mali, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is sounding the alarm over a sharp spike in coordinated attacks across multiple towns and cities carried out last week. The attacks caused heavy civilian casualties and forced hundreds of additional families to flee their homes, with more civilian deaths reported in follow-up clashes over the weekend. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has called for an immediate end to all hostilities, urging all parties to adhere to their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law to protect civilian lives and critical infrastructure. Malian authorities have launched an official investigation into the attacks, which took place between April 25 and 26 2026.

  • ILO report highlights labour rights as critical to protecting journalists on World Press Freedom Day

    ILO report highlights labour rights as critical to protecting journalists on World Press Freedom Day

    To mark World Press Freedom Day 2026 on May 3, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has launched a groundbreaking new report that examines the underrecognized role of core labour rights in protecting journalists and media professionals across the globe. The report delivers a stark assessment of the escalating risks faced by media workers, shedding new light on the systemic threats that have plagued the industry for decades. According to official data published alongside the analysis, more than 1,850 journalists have been killed in the line of duty since 1993. Countless more have been subjected to arbitrary detention, forced disappearance, and routine intimidation. Alarmingly, the ILO confirms that the vast majority of these deadly attacks remain unsolved, allowing perpetrators to act with total impunity.

    Physical violence is not the only threat facing modern media workers, the report emphasizes. Journalists now face a growing spectrum of hazards, from aggressive legal intimidation tactics designed to silence critical reporting to coordinated harassment and abuse across digital platforms. Women journalists, in particular, are disproportionately targeted by gendered digital threats that create a chilling effect on independent media.

    The ILO’s analysis pushes beyond conventional conversations about press freedom, arguing that guaranteeing the safety of media workers requires far more than protecting freedom of expression alone. Instead, the report makes the case that universal access to fundamental labour rights is an equally, if not more, critical component of meaningful journalist protection. Within this framework, the publication explores how established core labour rights, paired with widely accepted international labour standards, can reinforce existing safety frameworks. It also outlines clear pathways for governments, media outlet owners, media worker unions, and industry representative bodies to collaborate on developing more robust, effective safety protocols for newsrooms and field reporting.

    “Journalists are key defenders of human and labour rights,” noted Frank Hagemann, Director of Sectoral Policies at the ILO, in comments accompanying the report’s release. “They are also workers, and labour rights offer an important tool for protecting journalists at work.”

    Beyond this new report, the ILO reaffirmed its longstanding commitment to advancing journalist safety globally through its participation in the United Nations Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity. First endorsed in 2012 by the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination, the cross-institutional initiative was created to coordinate global action to address rising threats to media workers and end the culture of impunity that allows attacks on journalists to go unpunished. The full 588KB report is available for public download to support further industry and policy discussion on this critical issue.

  • World Court hears PNC, PPP govts had floated returning parts of Essequibo to Venezuela

    World Court hears PNC, PPP govts had floated returning parts of Essequibo to Venezuela

    On Monday, May 2026, Venezuela presented new archival evidence to the United Nations’ highest judicial body, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), as part of its ongoing argument that the 1966 Geneva Agreement remains the sole valid framework for bilateral negotiation of its long-running border dispute with Guyana over the resource-rich Essequibo region.

    Leading Venezuela’s presentation of this evidence, international law professor Andreas Zimmermann told the court that Guyana itself had twice, across different ruling administrations, floated proposals to cede partial control of disputed Essequibo territory to Venezuela during past bilateral talks.

    The first documented proposal emerged in 1977, when Guyana was governed by the People’s National Congress (PNC) under Prime Minister Forbes Burnham. During closed-door bilateral negotiations held under the Port of Spain Protocol, a subsidiary agreement to the 1966 Geneva framework, Guyana’s foreign minister tabled a formal proposal to adjust the existing border at Punta Playa, Zimmermann told the court. The proposed change would shift the current border’s orientation from the northwest to the northeast, effectively transferring the affected territory to Venezuelan control.

    “This development confirms that, during bilateral talks conducted under both the Port of Spain Protocol and the Geneva Agreement, Guyana was willing to pursue creative, mutually acceptable solutions and relinquish de facto control over territory that the 1899 Arbitral Award had supposedly assigned to British Guiana,” Zimmermann told the ICJ.

    Decades later, during the 1990s when Guyana was led by the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) administration, further talks explored even more flexible frameworks for resolving the dispute, the professor added. In 1995, joint discussions between the two countries included serious consideration of returning partial control of the disputed territory to Venezuela, as well as an innovative proposal for a reverse lease arrangement that would have Venezuela hold sovereignty over some areas while Guyana retained day-to-day operational control.

    Zimmermann also cited a 1998 letter written by then-Guyanese President Janet Jagan that reaffirmed the core purpose of the UN Secretary-General’s Good Officer mediation process – a process established under the Geneva Agreement – which Jagan explicitly noted was to “explore all avenues that would lead to the settlement of the border controversy” rather than simply debating the legal validity of the 1899 award.

    The professor added that high-level talks exploring practical solutions date back even further: between 1970 and 1975, Venezuelan President Carlos Andrés Pérez and Prime Minister Burnham held extensive, detailed discussions on the border dispute and mapped out multiple potential pathways to a compromise. Those talks culminated in a 1976 proposal from Burnham himself to resolve the long-running disagreement through expanded cross-border economic cooperation, with Burnham quoted as saying: “I would propose that there should be signed an accord which would lay at rest the border question.”

    Based on this long paper trail of past negotiations and proposals, Zimmermann argued, Guyana has long implicitly recognized that the Geneva Agreement is the proper instrument to resolve the substantive border dispute between the two nations, rather than treating the 1899 Arbitral Award as a final, unchallengeable settlement. The core mandate of Article 4 of the Geneva Agreement, he reminded the court, requires parties to pursue a practical, mutually acceptable solution to the full dispute, which aligns directly with the past actions of successive Guyanese governments.

    The ICJ is currently holding hearings this week and next to consider the merits of the case, which centers on the legal validity of the 1899 Arbitral Award. Guyana has long maintained that the 1899 award represents a full, final and binding settlement of the border with Venezuela, and is expected to deliver its rebuttal to Venezuela’s latest arguments in the coming days.

  • Guyana houdt voet bij stuk bij afwijzen Chinese vissersschepen

    Guyana houdt voet bij stuk bij afwijzen Chinese vissersschepen

    GEORGETOWN, GUYANA – In a move that underscores growing regional sensitivity around foreign commercial fishing activity, Guyana’s agricultural authorities have formally denied a permit request from Chinese seafood firm Grandeast Seafood Inc. to operate six of its own fishing vessels in local waters. Guyana’s Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha confirmed the rejection publicly on Monday, adding that no ongoing negotiations are underway to reverse the decision and grant approval at a later date.

    Grandeast Seafood, a subsidiary of China-based Hong Dong Fisheries Co., Ltd., has operated a fish and shrimp processing facility in Guyana since July 2018. The company poured roughly $20 million into building the modern plant, which boasts a total annual processing capacity of 5,000 to 6,000 metric tons of finfish and 10,000 to 12,000 metric tons of shrimp. However, the facility has consistently operated far below full capacity due to inconsistent local supply of raw seafood. Since opening, the plant has only processed an average of 2,500 metric tons of finfish and 700 metric tons of shrimp annually, creating lost production and revenue for the firm. To fix this persistent supply gap, Grandeast Seafood submitted its permit application to operate six company-owned fishing vessels last year, which has now been turned down.

    In its application, the Chinese firm emphasized that all six vessels would operate strictly in compliance with Guyana’s existing fisheries laws, and would not disrupt the livelihoods of local small-scale fishermen. The company also argued that operating its own vessels would create new skilled job opportunities and training programs for local crew members, delivering tangible economic benefits to Guyana’s coastal communities.

    The permit rejection has drawn close attention from neighboring Suriname, a country with its own sizable fishing industry that has struggled for years with unregulated foreign fishing in its territorial waters. Suriname’s authorities have repeatedly intercepted Chinese fishing vessels conducting illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in Suriname’s claimed maritime territory over the past decade. These repeated incidents have already prompted the country to ramp up maritime patrols, strengthen enforcement measures, and hold high-level diplomatic talks with Chinese officials to address the issue of overexploitation of shared regional fish stocks.

    Suriname has repeatedly stated that it remains fully committed to upholding the integrity of its maritime borders, protecting domestic fishing grounds for local operators, and ensuring long-term sustainable fishing practices across the region. The outcome of Grandeast Seafood’s permit application in Guyana is widely viewed as a key indicator of how Caribbean South American nations will approach foreign investment in their fishing sectors moving forward, balancing potential economic gains against concerns over resource sovereignty and local livelihood protection.

  • U.S. Coast Guard Intercepts Drug Vessel Near Haiti, Seizes $3.8M in Marijuana

    U.S. Coast Guard Intercepts Drug Vessel Near Haiti, Seizes $3.8M in Marijuana

    A coordinated anti-narcotics operation carried out by a U.S. Coast Guard law enforcement detachment deployed on a U.S. Navy vessel has successfully intercepted a vessel suspected of smuggling illegal drugs in waters off Haiti’s northern coast. The operation resulted in the seizure of approximately 3,200 pounds of marijuana, with an estimated street value of $3.8 million, U.S. officials confirmed.

    Based on an official statement released by U.S. Coast Guard Southeast, the interception occurred Thursday approximately eight nautical miles off the coast of Mole Saint-Nicolas, a coastal town in Haiti’s northwestern department. During the boarding and inspection of the suspect vessel, the enforcement team took one individual into custody. Three days after the interception, on Sunday, both the seized contraband and the detained suspect were handed over to Haitian law enforcement officials for further processing and prosecution.

    Lt. Cmdr. Cory Arsenault, the U.S. Coast Guard’s liaison officer to Haiti, emphasized the ongoing commitment of U.S. forces to collaborative regional security. “In close coordination with the Haitian government, the U.S. Coast Guard remains steadfast in our shared mission to safeguard the maritime approaches of the Caribbean,” Arsenault said. “Together, we are strengthening joint operations to disrupt the illegal flow of narcotics, protect vulnerable communities, and uphold the security and stability of the region.”

    The successful interdiction was not a solo effort: it drew on coordination and intelligence support from a network of multiple U.S. and regional security agencies, including Joint Interagency Task Force South, the multi-national body tasked with countering illicit trafficking in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, and U.S. Southern Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the region. Transnational drug trafficking has long been a persistent security challenge for Caribbean nations, with unpatrolled maritime routes often used by smuggling networks to move contraband between North, Central, and South America, fueling domestic instability and organized crime in the process.

  • Venezuela maintains ICJ does not recognise court in border controversy; says Spain was responsible for Essequibo

    Venezuela maintains ICJ does not recognise court in border controversy; says Spain was responsible for Essequibo

    On Wednesday, May 6, 2026, during ongoing oral proceedings at the United Nations’ highest judicial body, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Venezuela doubled down on its longstanding refusal to recognize the court’s authority to adjudicate a decades-long territorial border dispute with neighboring Guyana centered on the contested Essequibo Region.

    Samuel Moncada, Venezuela’s designated agent to the ICJ, opened his remarks to the court wearing a lapel pin displaying a map of Venezuela that explicitly incorporates the 159,000-square-kilometer Essequibo Region – a move that has already drawn formal concern from Guyana through the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the regional bloc of which Guyana is a member. The appearance comes just two days after Guyana presented its case to the ICJ, calling on the court to issue binding orders requiring Venezuela to remove all official maps labeling Essequibo as Venezuelan territory, and to rescind all domestic laws and constitutional amendments passed following a 2023 Venezuelan national referendum that formalized the country’s claim to the region.

    Addressing the court directly, Moncada emphasized that the 2023 popular referendum “unequivocally reaffirmed” Venezuelan voters’ unanimous rejection of the ICJ’s jurisdiction over the long-running disagreement. “That position has not changed. Venezuela has never consented to submitting this dispute to the jurisdiction of any court or arbitral tribunal,” he told the panel of ICJ judges.

    Moncada argued that any ruling by the court that interferes with the 1966 Geneva Agreement – the bilateral pact brokered by the United Nations that frames the dispute – would block any path to a resolution that satisfies both nations. “The only option is to allow the agreement to fulfill its purpose and objective without impediments,” he added. He accused Guyana of deliberately disregarding the terms of the 1966 accord, which was designed to address the colonial-era “fraudulent” 1899 Arbitral Award that first granted Essequibo to British Guiana, the predecessor to modern Guyana. Unlike judicial adjudication that produces a winner and a loser, Moncada noted, the Geneva Agreement mandates a mutually acceptable bilateral solution to overcome the harmful legacy of colonial border drawing.

    Staking Venezuela’s historical claim to the region, Moncada contended that Essequibo was always part of Spanish colonial territory that later became independent Venezuela. He argued that the Netherlands gained control of territory only east of the Essequibo River under the 1648 Treaty of Munster, in which Spain formally recognized Dutch independence and its territorial claims. This position directly contradicts Guyana’s formal submissions to the court, which have included cartographic and historical evidence showing Spanish colonial forces never established a presence in Essequibo, and that most place names across the region trace back to Dutch colonial settlement.

    Carl Greenidge, Guyana’s agent to the ICJ, laid out his country’s historical case during Monday’s proceedings, presenting maps showing the westernmost Spanish colonial outposts sat more than 650 kilometers east of the Venezuelan border, outside the boundaries of Essequibo. Greenidge also submitted a list of 35 existing place names across the region that retain their original Dutch monikers, tracing Guyana’s colonial history back to the first permanent Dutch settlement in 1598. By 1616, the Dutch had formally established the Colony of Essequibo, built Fort Kykoveral along the Mazaruni River as their administrative seat, and began governing territory stretching west to the Orinoco River, Greenidge explained. The Dutch West India Company took over administration of the colony in 1621, before moving the colonial seat to Fort Zealandia in 1744, he added.

    Moncada closed his remarks by reaffirming Venezuela’s commitment to a peaceful resolution of the dispute, while rejecting reliance on great power influence or outcomes from what he called “rigged international arbitrations.” “This is what led to our tradition of not recognizing the jurisdiction of arbitral tribunals or courts of any kind when it comes to matters relating to our territorial integrity,” he said. “This is why Venezuela does not accept the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice, which was erroneously imposed in the 2020 judgment, it respectfully rejects its jurisdiction to hear and decide on this dispute.”

  • Important working session on the stabilization and economic recovery of Haiti

    Important working session on the stabilization and economic recovery of Haiti

    On June 5, 2026, senior Haitian government officials and leaders of the United Nations System in Haiti convened a critical working session focused on advancing the country’s urgent economic stabilization and recovery agenda, laying out clear collaborative next steps to address the Caribbean nation’s ongoing humanitarian and development challenges.

    Leading the Haitian government delegation was Sandra Paulemon, Haiti’s Minister of Planning and External Cooperation, who was joined by Guy Roméo Latry, the Ministry’s Director General, and Paul Ruddy Mentor, Paulemon’s Chief of Staff. On the United Nations side, the meeting was hosted by Nicole Kouassi, UN Resident Coordinator in Haiti, alongside her specialized technical team.

    The two sides centered discussions on five core priorities, starting with the governance of the UN-Haiti Global Cooperation Framework and the Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) steering committee. Additional agenda items included progress updates on Haiti’s Strategic Development Plan (PSDH), the finalization of the mid-term report for the Doha Development Agenda, and the rollout of Haiti’s national economic stabilization and recovery program.

    This flagship recovery program is explicitly aligned with the Haitian government’s top national priorities, which center on enabling the safe return of displaced citizens to their home neighborhoods and the resumption of schooling for children across the country. It also prioritizes expanded access to safe drinking water and the rollout of a suite of essential social initiatives designed to rebuild Haiti’s damaged economic and community fabric.

    In her opening remarks to the session, Minister Paulemon clarified the institutional leadership structure for the program: strategic direction is set by the Office of the Prime Minister, while the Ministry of Economy and Finance serves as technical coordinator and carries responsibility for all budgetary oversight.

    Intervention zones for the recovery program have been selected through a multi-criteria assessment that weighs a region’s level of vulnerability, existing security pressures, and untapped economic potential. The program’s primary focus areas are fragile urban communities, strategic border transit corridors, and key agricultural basins that play a critical role in advancing national food security and creating much-needed local jobs.

    Paulemon underlined the urgent need to mobilize international funding that is coordinated, predictable, and rapidly deployable to deliver tangible, on-the-ground improvements that directly improve the lives of the Haitian people. “The Haitian population cannot afford to wait for relief and recovery,” she emphasized, noting that the program’s goals extend beyond enabling displaced people to return home to rebuilding the lost household capital of vulnerable communities.

    During negotiations, the Minister called for a revamped comprehensive cooperation framework between Haiti and the UN that is centered on measurable results and fully aligned with the government’s three core priorities: expanding national security, driving inclusive economic and social recovery, and laying the groundwork for upcoming national elections.

    For his part, Guy Roméo Latry stressed that the Ministry of Planning and the United Nations system must reach consensus on clear, concrete deliverables embedded within the overall cooperation framework. He reiterated that the framework must deliver results that are tangible, visible, and measurable to the Haitian public, calling for an impact-first working approach that turns formal commitments into immediate, direct action that benefits local communities.

    Paulemon and Kouassi also dedicated discussion to aligning Haiti’s Strategic Development Plan with the government’s current urgent priorities. The Minister called for expanded regular technical exchanges between planning department teams and the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office to align strategic references and eliminate any ambiguity around the strategic foundation for external development support to Haiti.

    The working session also yielded tangible progress on two key administrative priorities: negotiators moved closer to finalizing the mid-term report of the Doha Development Agenda, and agreed on preliminary terms for the organizational structure and membership of the Peacebuilding Fund steering committee.

    By the close of the meeting, both sides confirmed that the session had successfully consolidated strategic alignment between Haiti’s Ministry of Planning and the United Nations system. Participants recorded meaningful progress on strengthening governance mechanisms for both the Global Cooperation Framework and the Peacebuilding Fund, and established a clear timeline and roadmap for the next phases of implementing the national economic stabilization plan.

  • Waarom Iran de controle over Hormuz niet kan opgeven

    Waarom Iran de controle over Hormuz niet kan opgeven

    The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that carries roughly one-quarter of the world’s seaborne oil trade and massive volumes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and fertilizer, has once again become the epicenter of a sharpening standoff between Iran and the United States, with regional security and global energy markets hanging in the balance. In the latest escalation, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) released a new maritime map on Monday, May 4, 2026, marking out an expanded claimed control zone that extends far beyond the Strait of Hormuz and covers large sections of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) coastline.

    The map draws two key boundary lines: the western line stretches from Iran’s westernmost point on Qeshm Island to the UAE emirate of Umm al Quwain, while the eastern line connects Iran’s Mount Mobarak to the UAE’s Fujairah emirate, laying formal claim to navigation authority over the entire enclosed maritime area. This provocative move comes directly on the heels of a new U.S. initiative led by President Donald Trump, dubbed “Project Freedom,” which has deployed U.S. Navy escorts to help stranded tankers transit the strait— a waterway that has remained effectively closed since the U.S.-Israel war against Iran began on February 28.

    Hours after the map’s release, the UAE announced it had suffered a wave of drone and rocket attacks, with one strike igniting a major fire at a critical energy facility in Fujairah. The assault marked the first such attack on a Gulf Arab state since the fragile ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran went into effect on April 8. While the UAE swiftly blamed Iran for the strikes, Tehran initially withheld official confirmation before implicitly accepting responsibility on Tuesday, while shifting blame back to the U.S. for its aggressive military actions in the region.

    In a show of defiance, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf wrote on social media Tuesday that “the continuation of the current situation is unbearable for the United States, and we have not even started yet.” But behind this public display of confidence, analysts warn that Iran is increasingly leaning on its control over the Strait of Hormuz as its core bargaining chip in the ongoing conflict, which remains formally paused only by the shaky ceasefire—and Iran cannot afford to give up this leverage.

    Experts describe Iran’s control over the strait as a “strategic equalizer” that allows the country to offset U.S. military superiority. Iran cannot match the U.S. Navy and Air Force in a symmetric confrontation, but it leverages the strait’s unique geography: the narrow, heavily trafficked, economically critical waterway allows Iran to impose massive global costs without waging all-out war. Even without a full closure, tactics including mine-laying, drone and rocket strikes, fast patrol boat harassment, and electronic disruption are enough to make transit too risky for commercial shippers.

    Since the conflict began, tanker traffic through the strait has plummeted from an average of 129 transits per day in February to a near-complete standstill, sending ripples through global energy markets, supply chains, and shipping industries. “Iran doesn’t need to defeat the U.S. Navy to reshape the economic consequences of this conflict,” explained Mohammad Reza Farzanegan, a professor of Middle Eastern economics at Marburg University. “It only needs to make clear to insurers, shipowners, and energy traders that military pressure on Iran comes with costs for the entire global market. That uncertainty alone is enough to push up oil and LNG prices, raise transportation costs, and transmit the conflict to global inflation, food security, and financial markets.”

    Over the course of the conflict, Iran has demonstrated it possesses an advanced arsenal of attack drones, anti-ship missile-equipped fast attack craft, coastal rocket launchers, and precision-guided weapons, many deployable from underground coastal facilities, giving it ample capability to threaten commercial shipping through the waterway.

    Yet Iran also pays a steep price for its use of this leverage. Since April 13, the U.S. has enforced a full maritime blockade of all Iranian ports and shipping, cutting off Iran’s oil exports, blocking imports of essential goods, and halting inflows of foreign currency. The blockade has sent domestic prices soaring, eliminated or put on hold millions of Iranian jobs, and been compounded by a near-total internet blackout across Tehran.

    “Hormuz is probably Iran’s most important leverage point right now, even though it is a dangerous weapon,” Farzanegan noted. “It gives Iran negotiating power because full use of it would harm everyone.”

    The fragile April ceasefire has already come under severe new strain following the Fujairah attack. The Fujairah refinery exports more than 1.7 million barrels of crude oil and refined fuels daily, equal to roughly 1.7% of total global daily demand. The strike came just after U.S. officials announced that two U.S. commercial vessels, escorted by U.S. guided-missile destroyers, had successfully transited the strait. Shipping giant Maersk confirmed that the U.S.-flagged Alliance Fairfax exited the Persian Gulf with U.S. military escort, but Iran has denied it allowed any vessels to pass through the waterway. The U.S. military also reported it destroyed six small Iranian patrol boats, a claim Iran denies; Tehran says U.S. strikes killed five Iranian civilians in the confrontation.

    Muhanad Seloom, an instructor of international politics and security at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, argues that the attack on Fujairah reveals a deliberate Iranian strategy: Iran does not need to target U.S. commercial vessels directly in the Strait of Hormuz to keep economic pressure high on global markets—it can instead strike Gulf Arab states to send a warning. “Iran is trying to warn Gulf states that if they allow the U.S. to use their territory to attack Iran, Iran will destroy their infrastructure and trigger an economic collapse,” Seloom explained.

    The warning is directed at the six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC): Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain. Of these, the UAE has drawn particular Iranian ire: Abu Dhabi has deepened its strategic partnership with Israel, a U.S. ally in the war against Iran, since normalizing ties through the 2020 Abraham Accords. Just last month, the UAE also withdrew from OPEC and OPEC+, the production-cutting bloc led de facto by Saudi Arabia, shifting the regional energy and political dynamic.

    Since the start of the conflict, Iran has launched at least 6,413 rockets and drone strikes targeting seven Arab states in the region, with the majority hitting the UAE. Seloom says Iran is deliberately capitalizing on this shifting regional landscape, leaving a critical open question for regional stability: “The big question now is what this means for GCC countries and how long they will maintain their strategic patience. At some point, they could begin to see this as an existential threat.”