(iii) LIST OF COMMISSIONERS**1 PROFESSOR ROSE MARIE BELLE ANTOINE – CHAIR Dean, Faculty of Law, UWI and Professor of Labour Law & Offshore Financial Law, Professor Antoine is an award winning author, attorney, activist and international legal consultant. She holds a doctorate in law from Oxford University, an LLM from Cambridge, and the LLB from The UWI. Antoine was elected by OAS states as a Commissioner on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Washington 2011 and President in 2015. She was the Rapporteur for Persons of African Descent, Rapporteur for Indigenous Peoples and the inaugural Head of the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Unit at the IACHR / OAS. Currently, she is the Chair of the Family Planning Association. Antoine has won international awards and honours for her scholarship which has been described by international jurists as “original, insightful and amazing”. She created history by winning the distinguished UWI Vice Chancellor’s Prize for Excellence twice (research, then public service). She is an Honorary Fellow of the international Society for Trust Practitioners, the only person from the Caribbean. Antoine has published twelve books, including four with the renowned Oxford University Press and numerous scholarly articles. Formerly a Legal Officer at the ILO in Geneva, Antoine has served as Lead Consultant/ Advisor to all of the governments of CARICOM, the UK, Venezuela, USA and Canada, NGOs, the judiciary and to several international organizations, including the UN Drugs Control Project, UNIFEM, EU, OAS, IADB, World Bank, CARICOM, OECS, UNICEF, PANCAP, UNDP, CAREC, and UNAIDS. Consequently, she authored influential Policy Reports and drafted legislation on diverse subjects including Drugs, Labour Law, CSME Free Movement, HIV, Financial Law, Health, Discrimination, MLATs, Constitutional Reform, Gender, Money-Laundering, Anti-Corruption, the Judiciary, Public Service, Police, Juvenile Justice, Education and Human Trafficking. As EU/ UK consultant, she led an international team that carried out extensive law reform in the Turks and Caicos Islands which was cited as the forerunner for returning the TCI to democratic governance. Her CARICOM Harmonization in Labour Law Report 1992 was the blueprint for the CARICOM / ILO model labour laws and the catalyst for law reform in the region, including on equal opportunity, unfair dismissal and sexual harassment. As ILO Consultant, she drafted a Labour Code for Saint Lucia and recently, labour laws in The Bahamas. Antoine’s 2009 CARICOM Report on Law & Freedom of Movement is a background document for the CSME’s integration agenda. Professor Antoine has therefore contributed an important share to the practical realisation of the aims of Caribbean legal development through her pioneering scholarship, activism and consultancy work. As a result, she is described by governments, international sources and others as the “foremost labour law expert in the region”, the “leading” authority in the region on International/ Offshore Financial Law and a “change agent” in HIV law. PROFESSOR WENDELL ABEL - DEPUTY CHAIR Professor Wendell Abel has worked extensively in the field of mental health for many years in Jamaica and the Caribbean and is currently a Consultant Psychiatrist at the University Hospital of the West Indies and Head, Section of Psychiatry, Department of Community Health & Psychiatry, Faculty of Medical Sciences, UWI, Mona. He holds a Bachelor in Medicine, Bachelor Surgery (UWI), Doctor of Medicine in Psychiatry (UWI), the Advanced Diploma in Psychiatry and a Master’s in Public Health (Johns Hopkins). He is an alumnus of the Wolmer’s Boys’ School, Jamaica. He is fluent in Spanish and French. Professor Abel has published several peer reviewed book chapters and over 75 technical papers and journal articles focusing on mental health and health policy issues such as suicide, depression and community mental health services. His specialist areas of research include cannabis and he has been at the The Commission notes with regret the passing of one of the Commissioners early in its tenure: Justice Frederick Bruce-Lyle. Another Commissioner, Dr. Albert Persad, retired from the Commission for personal reasons. 1
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