We live in precarious times. Earlier this month the vice president of Venezuela stated that her country does not recognise the jurisdiction of the UN's highest court, the International Court of Justice, in regard to its territorial dispute with Guyana.
The two neighbouring countries have long disputed their mineral-rich border, and with Guyana poised to exploit its newfound energy resources. Venezuela is threatening to take the Essequibo region by force, which is two-thirds of Guyana.
How it plays out is of particular concern to us, given our possibly divided loyalties as a Caricom member and an industrial partner of Venezuela's. Utterances by Dr Rowley that we are not immune to the effects of war might be a subtle hint of what could lie in store
Last week, the unimaginable happened. The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, told the great British public that if he did not get his way in deporting illegal migrants to Rwanda, he would take Britain out of international conventions on human rights.
It would be exceedingly complicated to achieve, but his preparedness to strike a blow at the very heart of world stability is disturbing. After all, the UK is an important signatory to the international human-rights treaties.
He withstood pressure from his just-sacked Minister of Home Affairs (Home Secretary) to leave the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects the basic freedoms of more than 700 million people in Europe. It is an international treaty, and so the UK remains a signatory, although no longer an EU member. The European Court of Human Rights stopped the first Rwanda deportation and the case then went to the UK courts, where Britain lost. Sadly, Mr Sunak seems to regret rejecting his ex-minister's advice.
The UK also ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) over 50 years ago - 197 states have bought into it. In doing so, they agreed to ensure that people enjoy freedom from torture and other forms of inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment. Sending survivors of war, despotic regimes and decimated lands, who made perilous journeys and encountered harsh treatment, to a country notorious for human rights atrocities runs counter to that undertaking.
In the mid-1990s, 800,000 Rwandans slaughtered one another for tribal/political reasons. Rwanda may have achieved some economic and political stability since then, but, according to the Supreme Court ruling in London last week, human-rights breaches and political murders occur there, and, more importantly, Rwanda has been returning asylum-seekers to their own countries.
The court decided it was illegal to deport people to an unsafe third country. Nonetheless, Sunak vowed to pass legislation in order to pursue that particular plan. Removal to 'unsafe' Rwanda would be callous and loses him the moral argument and cancels any vague idea that he is an enlightened political leader.
Meanwhile, President Putin in Russia and Prime Minister Netanyahu in Israel have both defied world opinion, all UN entreaties, and
