The entire OHADAC team is delighted to announce the signature of a cooperation agreement between the OHADAC Regional Arbitration Centre (Centre CARO), the ACP LEGAL association and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). This collaboration aims to promote the communal vision of these organisations, which place law at the heart of regional development, act to promote harmonisation and transparency in the rules regulating economic activity, and work by means of action in the field and providing support to relevant institutions.

The OECS is an intergovernmental organisation, created in 1981 and involving ten countries from the eastern Caribbean: Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands. The OECS works to promote economic, social and cultural cooperation between Member States.

Since 2007, the ACP LEGAL association, whose current president is magistrate Catherine Sargenti, has worked to achieve harmonisation within corporate law in the Caribbean. The association aims to promote adherence to joint corporate law standards in the region, and to disseminate good legal practices.

The CARO Centre corresponds to the operational phase of the OHADAC project, offering services that make it possible to resolve, but also to anticipate disputes, while guaranteeing legal security and promoting access to justice for the economic actors in the Caribbean region. The CARO Centre's president is Sir Dennis Byron, former President of the Caribbean Court of Justice and of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Thanks to this partnership, joint actions will be implemented, expertise shared, and events and training sessions organised. It also aims to reinforce cooperation on the resolution of commercial disputes, by facilitating access for companies to arbitration and mediation procedures.

In other words, this signature marks an important stage in the history of cooperation between the countries of the eastern Caribbean, by reinforcing the links between regional organisations and by working together to create an environment favourable to business and investment in the region.

For more information, please contact: secretariat@carohadac.org.