The Political section of the Embassy monitors the local political climate and analyzes and reports on political developments and their potential impact on U.S. interests. The two-officer section, along with specialized assistants, also deals with mutual legal assistance issues, counter-narcotics cooperation, judicial cooperation, and general government-to-government relations on a wide range of issues. The United States maintains effective relations with the local government, and it is a strong part of the Political Section's portfolio to ontinue to build upon and nurture our governments' interactions.
The section contributes to the voice of the United States by sharing US policy opinions with the local government, and cooperating and delivering information to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and other relevant ministries and government entities. Given the rather industrial and cosmopolitan nature of Port-of-Spain, the city represents an important focal point for inter-Caribbean affairs and Western Hemisphere relations.
Port-of-Spain will house the Caribbean Court of Justice, and is also vying to be the site for the regional FTAA headquarters, scheduled to be on stream in 2005. These events ensure that our political interaction with the host country should remain relevant and dynamic.
COUNTRY REPORTS ON HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES 2003 United States Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor February 25, 2004 The Department of State submits an annual report on country human rights practice in compliance with sections 116(d) and 502B(b) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (FAA), as amended, and section 504 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended. The law provides that the Secretary of State shall transmit to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate, by February 25 "a full and complete report regarding the status of internationally recognized human rights, within the meaning of subsection (A) in countries that receive assistance under this part, and (B) in all other foreign countries which are members of the United Nations and which are not otherwise the subject of a human rights report under this Act." As is customary with this report, individual country reports are listed by region. The preface, overview, introduction, appendices, and country reports are all available at the url provided below. [Table of Contents page, sections in html format, various pagings]
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INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS CONTROL STRATEGY REPORT (INSCR). VOLUME I: DRUG AND CHEMICAL CONTROL; VOLUME II: MONEY LAUNDERING AND FINANCIAL CRIMES United States Department of State, Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. March 1, 2004 The Department of State’s International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) has been prepared in accordance with section 489 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended (the “FAA,” 22 U.S.C. § 2291). The 2004 INCSR, published in March 2004, covers the year January 1 to December 31, 2003 The following major illicit drug producing and/or drug-transit countries were identified and notified to Congress by the President consistent with section 706(1) of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 2003 (Public Law 107-228):
THE PRESIDENT'S NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL STRATEGY (2004) Executive Office of the President. Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). March 2004 The President’s National Drug Control Strategy for 2004 focuses on three core priorities: stopping use before it starts; healing U.S. drug users; and disrupting the market. Among the focal points: * The Strategy reports progress toward meeting the President’s goals of reducing drug use by 10 percent over two years, and 25 percent over five years, highlighted by an 11 percent drop in drug use among young people, exceeding the two-year goal. * The non-medical use of prescription drugs has emerged in the last decade as a major problem. The Strategy highlights the importance of prescription monitoring, and physician training, and education programs to curb the abuse of prescription drugs. * The 2004 Strategy also highlights a $23 million funding increase to support schools in their design and implementation of student drug testing, assessment, referral, and intervention programs. Full Report: [pdf format, 70 pages] National Drug Control Strategy Fact Sheet: [pdf format, 4 pages] Summary, FY 2005 National Drug Control Budget: [pdf format, 6 pages]
THE WORLD HEALTH REPORT 2003 - SHAPING THE FUTURE World Health Organization (WHO). December 18, 2003
A key message of this report is that real progress in health depends on stronger health systems based on primary health care. In most countries, there will be only limited advances towards the United Nations Millennium Development Goals and other national health priorities without the development of health care systems that respond to the complexity of current health challenges. Systems should integrate health promotion and disease prevention on the one hand and treatment for acute illness and chronic care on the other. This should be done across all levels of the health care system, with the aim of delivering quality services equitably and efficiently to the whole population. The lessons from SARS and poliomyelitis eradication programs shape strategies for an urgent health system response to HIV/AIDS; in turn, scaling up the attack on HIV/AIDS will do much to strengthen health care systems.
As WHO notes, “This report is not comprehensive. It focuses on selected themes, mentioning many other important subjects only tangentially. Mental health, tuberculosis, malaria, malnutrition and reproductive health will clearly remain crucial focus areas for WHO, although they receive limited attention here. Similarly, the human impact on the natural environment and the health consequences of environmental change for human populations are given little direct attention.” The chapters in this report (individually accessible in English, French and Spanish) are: Global Health: today's challenges; Millennium Health Goals: paths to the future; HIV/AIDS: confronting a killer; Polio Eradication: the final challenge; SARS: lessons from a new disease; Neglected Global Epidemics: three growing threats; Health Systems: principled integrated care.
WORLD POPULATION IN 2300: HIGHLIGHTS [DRAFT] United Nations. Department of Economic and Social Affairs (ESA), Population Division. December 9, 2003
These new long-range projections are groundbreaking in two respects: they extend the time horizon to 2300 (previous long-range projections were to 2150) and they include country forecasts (previously, long-range projections were available by continent only). Such long-reaching projections are needed by environmental scientists, policy makers and others who assess the long-term implications of demographic trends.
According to the medium scenario of these projections (in which world fertility levels will eventually stabilize at around two children per woman), world population will rise from the current 6.3 billion persons to around 9 billion persons in 2300. However, even small variations in fertility levels will have enormous impacts in the long-term. As little as one-quarter of a child under the two-child norm, or one-quarter of a child above the norm, results in world population ranging from 2.3 billion (low variant) to 36.4 billion (high variant) in 2300. Another scenario (constant scenario), undertaken for the sake of illustration, finds that if fertility levels remain unchanged at today’s levels, world population would rise to 244 billion persons in 2150 and 134 trillion in 2300, clearly indicating that current levels of high fertility cannot continue indefinitely.
THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE: HOW IT WORKS IN CONTEMPORARY PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS. [RS20273] Thomas H. Neale Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service. Updated September 8, 2003.
When Americans vote for a President and Vice President, they actually vote for presidential electors, known collectively as the electoral college. It is these electors, chosen by the people, who elect the chief executive. The Constitution assigns each state a number of electors equal to the combined total of its Senate and House of Representatives delegations; at present, the number of electors per state ranges from three to 55, for a total of 538. Anyone may serve as an elector, except for Members of Congress, and persons holding offices of “Trust or Profit” under the Constitution.
In each presidential election year, a group (ticket or slate) of candidates for elector is nominated by political parties and other groups in each state, usually at a state party convention, or by the party state committee. It is these elector-candidates, rather than the presidential and vice presidential nominees, for whom the people vote in the election held on Tuesday after the first Monday in November (November 2, 2004).
In most states, voters cast a single vote for the slate of electors pledged to the party presidential and vice presidential candidates of their choice. The slate winning the most popular votes is elected; this is known as the winner-take-all, or general ticket, system. Maine and Nebraska use the district system, under which two electors are chosen on a statewide, at-large basis, and one is elected in each congressional district. Electors assemble in their respective states on Monday after the second Wednesday in December (December 13, 2004). They are pledged and expected, but not required, to vote for the candidates they represent. Separate ballots are cast for President and Vice President, after which the electoral college ceases to exist for another four years.
The electoral vote results are counted and declared at a joint session of Congress, held on January 6 of the year succeeding the election. A majority of electoral votes (currently 270 of 538) is required to win.
TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS [TIP] REPORT United States Department of State. June 14, 2004 The State Department is required by law [Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000] to submit a report each year to the Congress on foreign government efforts to eliminate severe forms of trafficking in persons. This 2004 report is the fourth annual TIP Report. Although country actions to end human trafficking are its focus, the report also tells the painful stories of the victims of human trafficking--21st century slaves. This report uses the term "trafficking in persons" which is used in U.S. law and around the world, and that term encompasses slave-trading and modern-day slavery in all its forms. The report categorizes the 141 countries it covers in terms of each nation’s compliance with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. There are three basic “tiers”, as well as a “watch list”, into which countries are sorted based on efforts to enact legislation to prohibit trafficking in person, to prosecute offenders, to protect victims and to adopt measures to prevent such abuses. There is also a section of “international best practices” that highlights a number of anti-trafficking efforts around the globe. This year’s report focuses more attention on sex tourism and the demand it creates for children exploited by traffickers in commercial sex settings. The United States plays a leading role in fighting sex tourism by identifying and prosecuting U.S. nationals who travel abroad to engage in commercial sex with children. Under the PROTECT Act of 2003, American pedophiles who prey on foreign children around the globe for commercial sex are subject to U.S. prosecution. Table of Contents: [sections in html format, various pagings] Full Report: [pdf format, 274 pages]
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REPORT OF THE INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS CONTROL BOARD FOR 2003 International Narcotics Control Board (INCB). March 3, 2004 [Note: The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) is the independent and quasi-judicial control organ for the implementation of the United Nations drug conventions.] This new report emphasizes the "micro-social level" of drug trafficking and its relationship to crime and violence, in contrast to the INCB's 2002 report, which focused on the macroeconomic aspects of trade in illegal drugs. The 2003 report proposes a strategy of social and economic intervention to combat drug trafficking's negative impacts on individuals, families, neighborhoods and communities. Also troubling to the INCB is the rapid increase of global internet trade in prescription drugs, often targeted to addicts. Among the reports other findings are: * Afghanistan is the world's top producer of the opium poppy which is used to make heroin. Neighboring Turkmenistan has insufficient controls to stop the flow of heroin from Afghanistan; * Food shortages in Africa are being exacerbated by a shift from growing crops to cultivating cannabis. Profits from drug trafficking are also being used to fund wars on the continent; * Europe is a major producer of synthetic drugs such as ecstasy. The report’s authors urge governments to adopt stricter controls on "precursors" - legal chemical compounds that are used in the manufacture of synthetic drugs; * On the whole, heroin production in Asia is decreasing, but production of methamphetamines is on the rise, especially in Burma [Table of Contents page, sections in pdf format, 100 pages in total]
