Date & Time
5:00pm, 6 February 2024 - 7:00pm, 6 February 2024Location
About the event
This event marks the first of four Regional Conversations ahead of the 2024 Commonwealth People’s Forum in Samoa. We are inviting civil society experts from the Caribbean and the Americas to share their views.
Participants will contribute concrete recommendations to address some of the most urgent issues of our time—climate justice, health justice, and freedom of expression—and establish a renewed vision for the Commonwealth.
The contributions shared will help to shape this year’s People’s Forum, the largest gathering of civil society in the Commonwealth. The People’s Forum takes place alongside the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) and offers a platform for civil society to challenge, engage and ultimately inspire change.
Our Regional Conversations—taking place across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, and the Pacific—are part of a wider effort to influence the proceedings at the Heads of Government Meeting. The findings of the Conversations—combined with those from international surveys and the People’s Forum itself—will be summarised and presented to decision-makers over the course of CHOGM.
This event will open with a summary of our global launch event held in November 2023, and then a panel of leading practitioners and advocates will present their regional perspectives. We will then move into breakout sessions where attendees will be able to present concrete and innovative ideas that can create a more resilient and sustainable common future.
Please note that this is an invitation-only event. If you want to contribute ideas and help shape the Commonwealth People’s Forum and Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa in October 2024, you can do so via a global survey which we will make available via the mailing list soon. You can sign up for our mailing list at the bottom of this page.
Speakers
Dr Terri-Karelle Johnson, is a human ethernet – connector of people and dots! TV Presenter, Event Host, Speaker, Author and Podcaster. Terri-Karelle was recently awarded as one of the Most Influential People Of African Descent (MIPAD) Class of 2023 Global Top 100 for Media and Culture.
Karyn, aka Pabàmàdiz, is currently the editor-in-chief of Canadaland and occasionally a guest panellist on CBC’s Rosie Barton show. Formerly Karyn worked as the Managing Editor of CBC’s Investigative Unit, overseeing the team at The Fifth Estate and Marketplace. Karyn is best known for her work as a Parliament Hill reporter and as the Executive Director of News and Current Affairs at APTN (Aboriginal Peoples Television Network) where she ran the news department for seven years. She joined Toronto Metropolitan University’s faculty in the Spring of 2020 while completing a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University. Karyn has worked in daily news and long-form investigations at various other outlets, including ichannel, VisionTV, and CTV. Her work has been honoured with A Charles Bury Award (2023) the National Newspaper Awards’ Mary Ann Shadd Cary Award for Columns (2022); IJA’s Elias Boudinot Free Press Award (2019) ; the Hyman Solomon Award for Public Policy, (2019) and a Gordon Sinclair Award for Broadcast Journalism (2017).
From 2018-2020, Karyn was president of the Canadian Association of Journalists and still sits on the national board of directors. Karyn is a board member of Canadian Journalists for Free Expression. She worked as an expert trainer for Journalists for Human Rights in South Sudan in 2018.
Karyn is a citizen of the Pikwàkanagàn First Nation in Ontario and is of mixed Algonquin and Italian descent. She has a good sense of humor and a distinctive laugh. When she is not engaged in acts of journalism, you’ll find her paddling a canoe, shooting photos and eating frybread.
Michael Lees is a filmmaker & photographer from Dominica. Michael graduated from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 2015 with a BA in Communications (Media Production). In 2020, Michael released his debut documentary, Uncivilized, which saw him survive a category five hurricane alone in the forest. The film premiered at the Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival, winning awards at festivals in Barbados, Guadeloupe, and Italy.
His photographic work has been exhibited at CAFA (2023) in Barbados, and at the OECS-held exhibition, “Climate Change: An Eastern Caribbean Journey” (2022). Michael has shot for clients including National Geographic, Project CETI, & UNICEF, and is currently the president of Dominica’s premiere visual arts group, The Waitukubuli Artist Association. His artistic practice focuses on themes of climate, circularity, and challenging traditional narratives.
Margaret Lawrence has over forty years in Broadcasting and The Performing Arts. In 1991 she received a National Award, The Golden Arrow of Achievement for Drama & Broadcasting.
Margaret was trained at The University of Guyana and received the Prime Minister’s Medal for the Best Graduating Student in Public Management, University of the West Indies, The BBC and The Institute of Commercial Management, London.
She is the Executive Director of Merundoi Incorporated, an NGO specialising in Behaviour Change Communication and administers The National School of Theatre Arts & Drama.
Acknowledged as one of the Caribbean’s best actresses, Margaret is involved in acting, writing & directing for Stage, Radio, Television and Film and has used her skills since 1992 in the fight against HIV/AIDS with the formation of the NGO, Artistes In Direct Support. In 2012 she produced her first short film, Tradition.
Discussion
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