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Host Cheyenne (2016)

Diana Mahabir-Wyatt

Diana Mahabir-Wyatt has been an activist for Human Rights since childhood. She has advocated for equality for girls in primary and secondary school, marched against racism and war in university. She was an independent Member of the Senate of Trinidad & Tobago for nine years mainly dealing with Industrial Relations and Social Development Legislation. She is a strange combination of serene and affectionate support and steely determination, perhaps shaped by an early childhood growing up in Canada amid refugees from war zones and concentration camps. Her advocacy for the victims of domestic violence and child abuse are well known. Less well-known are her stories for children and her addiction to studies on comparative religion and philosophy.

After teaching for a couple of years at UWI St. Augustine she dove into the Human Rights field of Industrial Relations, heading the ECA and the Caribbean Employers Confederation while providing for the defense and support of victims of domestic violence and child abuse. Along the way she founded the T&T Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the Shelter for Battered Women and Children, Childline, Stop Elderly Abuse Now and Peace Love and Understanding in Schools while earning her living by running a Human Relations Consultancy. She was awarded a PhD (honoris causa) by UWI and a national medal gold for community services to women in 2014 by the government of T&T. She currently heads the Caribbean Center for Human Rights.