Victoria Pearman: New President Of CAROA
At the General Meeting held on 13th June 2017 Ms. Victoria Pearman was elected the new President of the Caribbean Ombudsman Association [CAROA] and a new CAROA Council was appointed effective on 1 st July 2017.
The CAROA Membership met for the 9th Biennial CAROA Conference on the island of Bonaire 11th –15th , June 2017. The conference was hosted by the National Ombudsman of the Netherlands, Mr. Reiner van Zutphen.
Topics covered during the conference included the developing role of the Ombudsman, and was followed by the Biennial General Meeting and training sessions facilitated by the Queen Margaret University and sponsored by the International Ombudsman Institute [IOI].
Members of the Council representing various islands of the region will serve in this capacity for a 2 year period until 30th June 2019: Victoria Pearman, Ombudsman for Bermuda, was elected to the position of President of CAROA; Vice President Mr. Keursly Concincion, Curaçao Ombudsman; Secretary/Treasury Mr. Raymond Mathilda, Secretary General of Curaçao Ombudsman, as well as Dr. Marion Blair, Ombudsman for Antigua and Barbuda; Ms. Sheila Braithwaite, Complaints Commissioner for the Virgin Islands and Ms. Arlene Harrison-Henry, Public Defender of Jamaica.
Ms. Pearman said that she considered it an honour to have been chosen by her colleagues. She looks forward to working together with them to strengthen CAROA and improve communication, beginning by reactivating its website. On behalf of the Council, Ms. Pearman offered her thanks to outgoing President Dr. Rachnilda Arduin, Sint Maarten Ombudsman and Vice President Ms. Cynthia Astwood, Turks & Caicos Islands Complaints Commissioner for their service.
Ms. Pearman will work to foster improved communication, cooperation and networking to strengthen the ombudsman institution in the region. She said that cooperation and networking by members throughout the region would benefit our communities with increased opportunities for Offices to learn from each other as advocates for fairness in public administration, good governance and best practices.
Ms. Pearman’s biography can be found on the Ombudsman for Bermuda website here .At the conference a memorandum of understanding was signed by IOI President Mr. Peter Tyndall and outgoing CAROA President Dr. Arduin on behalf of the respective organisations in an effort to champion best practices in the region. More information on the IOI’s participation at the CAROA Conference can be found on the website www.theioi.org. Honourary Life Members of CAROA were inducted for their contribution to the organisation and the ombudsman institution.
They are: Dr. Najmul Abedin, Professor in the Department of Public Management & Criminal Justice at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee; Advocate Arlene Brock, Director of the African Ombudsman Research Center and former Bermuda Ombudsman; Mr. Elton Georges, former British Virgin Islands Ombudsman and Ms. Alba Martijn, former Curacao Ombudsman. Established in 1998, CAROA is a member-based organisation of Ombudsman offices with over 17 members in the Caribbean region. The Caribbean Ombudsman Association website can be found here.
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