The Legal Affairs Committee (LAC) of the Caribbean Community has called on the Preparatory Committee for the Establishment of the Caribbean Court of Justice to put in place the necessary mechanism needed to have the Agreement establishing the Court implemented.

This was with the view to having the Court inaugurated by no later than October 2002. This was one of the major decisions emanating from the Fifth Ordinary Meeting of the LAC which was held in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, from November 28-30, 2001.

In less that two months, CARICOM Heads of Government are once again meeting in The Bahamas, this time for a Tourism Summit on 8-9 December at the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island, The Bahamas.

In response to the unprecedented terrorist attack on civil aviation on 11 September 2001, the Emergency Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government charged Directors of Civil Aviation of the Caribbean Community to assess the integrity of the security systems at the various airports in the Region, as well as the status of implementation of the international standards and recommended practices relating to aviation security and to make recommendations where necessary.

On 1 December 2001 the CARICOM/Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement will enter into force provisionally in the Dominican Republic - a market of some 8 million people - and in all CARICOM States, except Guyana and Suriname. These two States have not yet completed the administrative procedures.

The Commonwealth of The Bahamas is not a party to these trade arrangements.

Today, Saturday, 1 December 2001, the entire world finds itself in the vice-like grip of the most devastating disease ever recorded in the long and enduring history of mankind. Since the first clinical evidence of the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) was reported twenty years ago, an unprecedented 60 million people worldwide have become infected with the deadly virus. At this very juncture, an estimated 40 million people from every place on planet earth, every ethnic origin, every religious culture, and every stratum of society are living with HIV/AIDS.

The Government of Trinidad and Tobago has invited the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to mount a CARICOM Electoral Mission to that Member State to evaluate and monitor the electoral systems and processes as well as the conduct of the General Elections on 10 December, 2001.

CARICOM has agreed, given the limited time available, to mount a Mission to observe the conduct of the General Elections on 10 December, 2001.

A critical meeting of Civil Aviation top executives from Member States of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) began today at the Georgetown-Based CARICOM Secretariat, aimed at crafting a regional initiative to tighten aviation security across the Region.

As part of its new cooperation programme with the English-speaking Caribbean, the Government of Spain will be sponsoring a seminar for Spanish Teachers´ Associations and Senior Education Officers responsible for foreign language training on New Strategies for the Teaching of Spanish as a Second Language. The seminar which is organised through the Latin American Economic System (SELA) working in close collaboration with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat, will take place in Caracas, Venezuela, December 13-14, 2001.