Today at exactly 12 noon (Eastern Caribbean Time) the Caribbean Community will pause for at least one minute of silence in honour of those who died in the Middle Passage and in resistance to slavery, as the community marks the beginning of the 200th anniversary year of the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Under the theme, Caricom reflects, the Caricom Secretariat has collaborated with the Government of Guyana to organize a brief ceremony on the steps of Parliament Building to mark the day. During this ceremony, a statement from the Chairman of Caricom, Dr Ralph Gonsalves will be broadcast and remarks will be made by Secretary-General of the community, Dr Edwin Carrington and President Bharrat Jagdeo. The programme will be interspersed with artistic and cultural expressions leading up to the minute of silence at noon, said a press release from the Caricom Secretariat. In addition, Guyana has planned a cultural evening at the National Cultural Centre tomorrow. The Caricom Secretariat will continue its line-up of activities with a special lecture on Tuesday at 2 pm in the major conference room of the secretariat headquarters. The lecture will be presented by distinguished Surinamese writer Cynthia McCleod on the topic: “The Role and Position of Women in the Caribbean during Slavery.”

And the Caricom Caucus of Permanent Rep-resentatives at the United Nations Headquarters in collaboration with the Department of Public Information at the United Nations has mounted in the visitors’ lobby, an exhibition titled “Lest We Forget – The Triumph over Slavery,” and will host tomorrow a special commemorative session of the General Assembly at which the immediate past Chair-man of Caricom, Denzil Douglas, will deliver a statement on behalf of the community. This will be followed by a panel discussion in the afternoon on the theme, ‘Slavery, Our Common Heritage,’ involving the participation of several academics from the Caribbean, Africa, Europe and the United States.

Other activities, including a cultural extravaganza to showcase the music of the African diaspora, are also planned in the ensuing months.