ABACO, Bahamas — Baroness Patricia Scotland, Secretary General of the Commonwealth, visited Abaco on Sunday, October 6, 2019, and viewed the devastation caused by Hurricane Dorian to that Northern Bahamas island. She was accompanied by the Hon. Darren A. Henfield, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Member of Parliament for North Abaco.
Commenting on her Abaco visit on her Facebook page, Baroness Scotland noted, “Today I visited Abaco in The Bahamas. The devastation hurricane Dorian caused was something I have sadly seen before in Dominica & other Commonwealth countries. What I saw & heard was the resilience & determination of the Bahamian people to build back better.”
In what was described as a true breakthrough for gender equality in the Commonwealth, Baroness Scotland, the first woman to hold the post, was selected as the sixth Secretary-General of the Commonwealth during the 24th biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) held in Malta in November of 2015. She assumed the office on April 1, 2016.
Born in Dominica, Patricia Janet Scotland’s family emigrated to England when she was two years old. She attended Chapel End Secondary School and Walthamstow School for Girls and “then went on to Mid Essex Technical College in Chelmsford, where she obtained Bachelor of Laws from University of London as an external student,” according to Wikipedia. “She was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1977, specialising in family law, and was called to the Dominican bar in 1978.”
According to Wikipedia, “In 1991, Scotland became the first black woman to be appointed a Queen’s Counsel. She later founded 1 Gray’s Inn Square barristers chambers. Early in 1997, she was elected as a Bencher of the Middle Temple. Scotland was named as a Millennium Commissioner on 17 February 1994, and was a member of the Commission for Racial Equality. She received a life peerage on a Labour Party list of working peers and was created Baroness Scotland of Asthal, of Asthal in the County of Oxfordshire on 30 October 1997.
From March 2015 to March 2016, Scotland served as senior advisor to Ron Wahid, Chairman of Arcanum, a subsidiary of Magellan Investment Holdings. She stepped down in order to assume the role of Secretary-General of the Commonwealth.
In the area of politics, according to Wikipedia, “From 1999 to 2001, Scotland was the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, where she was responsible, among others, for the UK Government’s diplomatic relations with North America, the Caribbean, Overseas Territories, Consular Division, British Council, administration and all Parliamentary business in the House of Lords.
‘Scotland introduced the International Criminal Court Bill which sought to ratify the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court into UK law. She established the Pro Bono Lawyers Panel, a panel of British-based lawyers who provided legal advice on a pro bono basis to United Kingdom nationals imprisoned in foreign countries. She created an Overseas Territories Council for the Caribbean and reformed and restructured the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Consular Division to be able to respond more effectively to emergencies and disasters abroad such as the 11 September attacks.”
Continuing, Wikipedia states: “In 2001 Scotland became Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor’s Department, and was made a member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom. She was the minister formally responsible for civil justice and the reform of civil law including the comprehensive reform of land registration leading to the Land Registration Act 2002.
“She was also formally responsible for international affairs at the Lord Chancellor’s Department and was appointed by Prime Minister Tony Blair as the UK Alternate Representative to the European Convention and was given primary responsibility for the negotiations in relation to the Charter of Rights which were successfully concluded in 2003. During this period she consolidated the strong relations created with all the applicant countries through the FAHR programme and the member states and was subsequently awarded the Polish Medal for her contribution to the reform and development of Law in Poland.”
According to Wikipedia, “In 2003, Scotland was made Minister of State for the Criminal Justice System and Law Reform at the Home Office and deputy to the Home Secretary. She served in that post until 2007 under three Home Secretaries: David Blunkett, Charles Clarke and John Reid. While at the Home Office she was responsible for major reform of the criminal justice system. She created the Office of Criminal Justice Reform[11] which helped to create and support the National Criminal Justice Board and the Local Criminal Justice Board. Having acted as Chair, she then created three Alliances to reduce re-offending (Corporate, Civic and Faith based Alliance) and the Corporate Alliance against Domestic Violence.[12] She created an advisory group on victims and the Criminal Justice Centre, Victims and Witness units.”
