Grenada’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Grenada to the United Nations, Her Excellency Keisha A. McGuire, has been re-elected by acclamation as C24 Chair for the 2021 term.
Her re-election came on 18 February 2021, at the Organizational meeting of the Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples (Committee of 24 or C24), which was presided over by Ms. Rosemary A. DiCarlo, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peace-building Affairs.
As Chair of the Committee, Ambassador McGuire will oversee meetings and field activities related to decolonization.
During the Meeting, Ambassador McGuire recommitted the determination of the Committee to “pursue suitable means for immediate, full and speedy implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples.” Noting that “we entered the first year of the Fourth International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism,” Ambassador McGuire called on “all the Member States to renew their commitment, to strive to make this the last decade to be observed.”
At the start of the decolonization process, almost a third of the world’s population lived in non-self-governing Territories. Now more than 80 former colonies have gained their independence. Today, 17 Non-Self-Governing Territories remain on the UN’s agenda. With the largest number of Non-Self-Governing Territories in the Caribbean, the region is quite active in the work of the United Nations towards the elimination of colonialism.
To note, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Saint Kitts, and Nevis, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines are also members of the Committee.
Since joining in December 1992, Grenada is chairing the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization for a third time, under the stewardship of Ambassador McGuire.
