Commonwealth Secretary-General to Deliver the 42nd Sir Winston Scott Memorial Lecture

Dominican-born Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland will deliver the 42nd Sir Winston Scott Memorial Lecture on Monday, November 27, 2017 at 8:00 p.m. in the Frank Collymore Hall of the Tom Adams Financial Centre. She will speak on the topic “Responsiveness, Resilience and Regeneration: Building on Commonwealth Advantage for Good Governance, Prosperity and Progress.”

“We are very pleased to have such a distinguished daughter of the region as our speaker this year,” said Novaline Brewster, Public Affairs Officer at the Central Bank of Barbados, which hosts the Scott Lecture annually. “Patricia Scotland is without a question a trailblazer.” In addition to being the first woman to hold the post of Commonwealth Secretary-General, Scotland, a lawyer by profession, was also both the first black woman and the youngest woman to be appointed Queen’s Counsel, as well as the first woman to be Attorney General of England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Since being appointed as Secretary-General of the 52-member organisation in 2016, Scotland has spoken extensively about “Commonwealth Advantage”, the way in which member states have a shared history, similarities in parliamentary and legal structure, and a common language that can be leveraged to their individual and collective benefit. This is something she is expected to elaborate on during her presentation, especially as it relates to matters of trade, environmental issues, and growth.

“This lecture is sure to touch on a wide array of issues, so we’re inviting everyone to come out and engage with Secretary-General Scotland,” Brewster commented.

The Sir Winston Scott Memorial Lecture is the longest running lecture series in Barbados. First held in 1976, it has attracted renowned speakers including Professor Cardinal Ward, Professor of Electrical Engineering at MIT; venture capitalist, Dr. Nicholas Brathwaite; and most recently Dr. Richard Drayton, Rhodes Professor of Imperial History at King’s College in London.

2017-11-20