About The International Law and Human Rights Unit’s
The International Law and Human Rights Unit’s (ILHRU) mandate is focused on the preparation of country reports for submission to various international organizations, including the United Nations (UN), The Organization of American States (OAS), and International Labour Organization (ILO) in respect of international human rights instruments to which Trinidad and Tobago is a part. This process includes expansive data collection form external stakeholders, which include government and civil society. Apart from preparing national reports for Trinidad and Tobago, the Unit also acts as peer reviewer for other countries when a request is made to the government form an international organization such as the UN.
Trinidad and Tobago, as the leading financial centre of the Caribbean, is poised within the international community as the change leader in the region and is affected by significant trends in international law and human rights issues such as:
- Climate change, as it relates to the right to food, the right to health, the right to water and the right to reparation for loss of private property due to environmental factors;
- Poverty reduction and the right to a good standard of living;
- Refugee and asylum seekers;
- Global economic development; and
- Transnational crimes, such as Human Trafficking and Human Smuggling.
These issues are embedded with critical human rights components and the Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Legal Affairs is responsible for providing responses to request for information on these issues in various forms to different international organizations such as the United Nations as well as to line Ministries.
The ILHRU forms part of national task forces which are charged with Trinidad and Tobago’s national policy and legislation in relation to Human Trafficking, refugees and asylum seekers. It also sits as one of the government representatives on the ILO 144 Tripartite Committee in the Ministry of Labour, and Small and Micro-Enterprise Development, as well as the Cabinet appointed Committee for implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
Apart from the above functions the ILHRU also engages when necessary in the following activities;
- Public awareness campaigns on various human rights issues.
- Hosting of international conferences and meetings which relate to Human Rights matters.
