Prime Min­is­ter Dr. Ter­rance Drew says the Third Fo­rum on Hu­man Rights De­fend­ers in En­vi­ron­men­tal Mat­ters in Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean which is be­ing held in an Eng­lish-speak­ing Caribbean coun­try rep­re­sents more than a meet­ing of minds, but rather, a meet­ing of pur­pose.

“It is a pow­er­ful sig­nal that the strug­gle for en­vi­ron­men­tal jus­tice and the de­fense of hu­man rights know no bor­ders, and that our small is­lands, with our proud his­to­ries and re­silient peo­ple, have a mean­ing­ful role to play on the glob­al stage,” he told the open­ing cer­e­mo­ny.

Prime Min­is­ter Drew told del­e­gates that en­vi­ron­men­tal degra­da­tion, cli­mate change, and bio­di­ver­si­ty loss are not ab­stract con­cepts but lived re­al­i­ties for com­mu­ni­ties in Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean.