{"id":133360,"date":"2021-07-17T09:26:40","date_gmt":"2021-07-17T13:26:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?p=133360"},"modified":"2021-07-17T09:53:56","modified_gmt":"2021-07-17T13:53:56","slug":"residents-of-hurricane-ravaged-barbuda-hopeful-as-un-body-signals-deep-concern-over-resort-for-uber-rich","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/residents-of-hurricane-ravaged-barbuda-hopeful-as-un-body-signals-deep-concern-over-resort-for-uber-rich\/","title":{"rendered":"Residents of hurricane-ravaged Barbuda hopeful as UN body signals \u2018deep concern\u2019 over resort for uber-rich"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The leading UN body on human rights has expressed \u201cdeep concerns\u201d over a sprawling resort marketed exclusively to the uber-rich being built on Barbuda, a tiny Caribbean island ravaged by recent hurricanes, and one of the last places on Earth to be communally owned.<\/p>

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The Independent<\/em>\u00a0has learned that a letter has been sent from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to the central Government of Antigua and Barbuda, asking them to provide more information on the luxury Barbuda Ocean Beach Club development and a nearby international airport.<\/p>\n

The involvement of UN \u201cSpecial Rapporteurs\u201d \u2013 independent experts who monitor and publicly report on human rights violations around the world \u2013 appears to be a significant international escalation, and places greater scrutiny on the foreign investors\u2019 projects.<\/p>

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Construction has continued to ramp up in the wake of a devastating hurricane which hit the island in 2017, while the local community is still reeling from the disaster and awaits a fully functioning hospital, proper financial services, reliable power and home repairs.<\/p>

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The developments are facing multiple legal complaints which allege dismantlement of Barbudans\u2019 historical legacy and legal rights, and significant harm to fragile ecosystems including internationally important wetlands.<\/p>\n

While the OHCHR says it would not \u201cprejudge\u201d allegations, the letter states that \u201cwe would like to express our deep concerns regarding the potential impacts of the Barbuda Ocean Club Project on human rights, including the rights to food, water and sanitation, housing, and a healthy environment, as well as cultural rights\u201d.<\/p>

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The UN investigators\u2019 letter, dated 22 June, appeared to have been posted to the OHCHR website in error. It was later removed but prior to that, was stored in an internet archive on 9 July.<\/p>\n

The Independent\u00a0<\/em>has contacted OHCHR for comment.<\/p>

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While the letter remained private, the Special Rapporteur noted: \u201cWe may publicly express our concerns in the near future as, in our view, the information upon which the press release will be based is sufficiently reliable to indicate a matter warranting immediate attention.\u201d<\/p>

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They also urge that \u201cmeasures be taken to halt the alleged violations and prevent their re-occurrence\u201d.<\/p>\n

John Mussington, the high school principal on Barbuda and a marine biologist, told\u00a0The Independent\u00a0<\/em>that he believed involvement of the UN human rights commission was crucial to Barbudans\u2019 survival as a community. He said that since the 2017 hurricane, the local people had struggled to be heard, not just internationally, but on a local level.<\/p>\n

He pointed to recent comments by one of the American developers, Mike Meldman, who had boasted that Barbuda would be a more exclusive rival to St Barths as a \u201cblue chip\u201d island.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be like if you made St Barts private and really limited to the people who go there. It will be much more intimate. You won\u2019t have the people that are just there for a few days to drink ros\u00e9,\u201d the real estate tycoon told\u00a0The New York Post\u00a0<\/em><\/a>earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur demographic is successful wealthy guys,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Mr Mussington said: \u201cThe whole atmosphere they are painting is one of limited access, which means that Barbudans are not in the picture. We cannot sit back and allow our entire way of life, culture, everything, to be eliminated for a real estate venture.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWe intend to maintain our way of life and our culture because it\u2019s not reasonable to ask us, as a unique people, to just disappear ourselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want the world to know that these billionaires, these persons who have the wealth, when you purchase one of these properties, you are actually buying the death of Barbudans as a culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Independent<\/em>\u00a0has made repeated requests for comment from the developers of the Barbuda Ocean Club and the Government of Antigua and Barbuda for comment.<\/p>\n

Barbuda is owned collectively by its 1,800 citizens, many the descendants of African slaves brought to the island by the British during the colonial era.<\/p>\n

Communal ownership means each Barbudan has rights to a plot of land.<\/p>\n

\u201cA cleaner can apply for beachfront property and get it, and so can a doctor. So there\u2019s no great inequality in Barbuda,\u201d one council member explained.<\/p>\n

In the past, foreign developers were granted leases and projects required consent of a majority of Barbudans. Unlike on other Caribbean islands, including larger sister island Antigua, where the central government is located, Barbuda has avoided an overdeveloped, privatized oceanfront and flotilla of cruise ships.<\/p>\n

But four years ago, Category-5 Hurricane Irma roared across the island, flattening virtually every structure and scattering the small community to evacuation shelters in Antigua and beyond.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/span>\u00a9 Provided by The Independent<\/span>\u00a0Debris from damaged homes lines a street on the nearly destroyed island of Barbuda on 8 December 2017 in Cordington, Barbuda. (Getty Images)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As outlined in the UN letter, in the wake of the disaster, the government estimated that the amount needed for Barbuda\u2019s recovery was $222 million. \u201cIn the recovery phase, proposals for large-scale projects began to flourish, including the development of an airport and of luxury real estate and tourist structures such as the Barbuda Ocean Beach Club.\u201d<\/p>\n

And while Barbudans were displaced from their island, the 2007 Barbuda Land Act, which codified their communal ownership, was quietly changed by the central government. It was declared unconstitutional that the island belong solely to Barbudans, as it had for more than 180 years. The changes also did away with requiring the obligatory consent of the Barbudan people for major development.<\/p>\n

The Barbuda Ocean Club appears to have been eased along by these changes.<\/p>\n

Behind Barbuda Ocean Club is billionaire John Paul DeJoria, founder of Patron tequila, through his \u201cPeace, Love and Happiness\u201d (PLH) company. Fellow developer is Mike Meldman, of Discovery Land Company, who also started Casamigos tequila with George Clooney and Randy Gerber.<\/p>\n

The Barbuda Ocean Club will have 495 residences, including 175 oceanfront properties, along with numerous amenities including a beach club and golf course, on an island which is 14 miles (23km) by 7.5miles (12km).<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0the Post<\/em>\u00a0article, the ocean club\u2019s plots are valued upwards of $3m. The cost of a newly-built home? \u201cYou name it,\u201d it gushed.<\/p>\n

The Barbuda Ocean Club has garnered support from the central government. Prime Minister Gaston Browne, a former banker, has made clear his disdain for Barbuda\u2019s collective land rights, calling it a \u201cglorified welfare system\u201d, that has left the island dependent on wealthier Antigua. He is an ebullient cheerleader and ally for foreign developers.<\/p>\n

The developers and central government argue the luxury resort is providing hundreds of jobs for Barbudans.<\/p>\n

But as the island\u2019s MP, Trevor Walker, who is also a member of Barbuda\u2019s local elected council, told\u00a0The Antigua Observer<\/em>: \u201cYou cannot alienate assets of over a billion dollars, which, for example is what PLH has now in terms of land \u2013 over 700 acres \u2013 and just give the people some jobs and think that we are going to be okay. It\u2019s not okay.\u201d<\/p>\n

He called the prime minister\u2019s changes to the Barbuda Land Act \u201can unforgiveable sin\u201d.<\/p>\n

While Barbuda has remained an untouched corner of the Caribbean, it has not been without economic development. For example, The K Club, built in 1990, was a hotel with 45 rooms on 200 acres, and a favorite of Princess Diana.<\/p>\n

In 2016, Barbudans voted for the initial conception of the Barbuda Ocean Beach Club but some have since said the local community were duped over its vast environmental and social toll.<\/p>\n

Mr Mussington, who has been part of those meetings, told\u00a0The Independent<\/em>: \u201cIn 2016, what was put before the [Barbuda] council and the people is definitely not the details of what is being done now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Walker also said that the original project had no plans for a golf course or a marina: \u201call they came to ask for was some land in terms of developing a hotel.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UN Human Rights investigators also say they are \u201cdeeply concerned\u201d about the resort\u2019s location amid the fragile ecosystems at Codrington Lagoon and Palmetto Point.<\/p>\n

These are areas of national park and internationally important wetlands under RAMSAR \u2013 the only global treaty to focus on the protection of a single ecosystem \u2013 which help prevent climate-linked coastal erosion and flooding, enhancing water quality, sequestering carbon and providing habitat to endangered species.<\/p>\n

Barbuda is a hotspot of biodiversity and home to the world\u2019s largest breeding and nesting colony of the Magnificent Frigate Bird.<\/p>\n

The lagoon\u2019s mangroves and seagrass<\/a>\u00a0protect the island during extreme weather, like hurricanes, which are exacerbated by the climate crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease explain the rationale for permitting such large and intrusive developments within a national park and internationally designated RAMSAR area, both of which are intended to protect and conserve biological diversity,\u201d the UN asks.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), on behalf of the island\u2019s elected council, called for an international investigation into the destruction of a listed habitat after submitting evidence to the Ramsar Secretariat.<\/p>\n

The OHCHR human rights investigators have also asked for more details on how construction of Barbuda\u2019s new international airport came about.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s alleged that following Irma, stretches of the island\u2019s forest \u2013 habitat for indigenous deer and communal farming, grazing and hunting grounds \u2013 were destroyed to build airport strips by Bahamas Hot Mix, a company based in the Bahamas.<\/p>\n

Such development is supposed to require Environmental Impact Assessments. While two EIAs have been conducted, as the UN letter outlines, \u201cthere was no prior consultation with the population and, until today, the environment impact assessments are not publicly available\u201d.<\/p>\n

Barbuda currently has no direct commercial flights, so the\u00a0NY Post<\/em>\u00a0article underlined the new airport\u2019s importance for exclusive resorts. \u201dThere will be an airport large enough to accommodate flights from as far away as London \u2013 everyone flies private here,\u201d it notes.<\/p>\n

The Independent<\/em>\u00a0has reached out to Bahamas Hot Mix for comment.<\/p>\n

Professor Leslie Thomas QC, an expert in public international law at London\u2019s Garden Court Chambers, was instructed to bring a legal challenge by Barbudans over the airport, which is reportedly being partly funded by developers PLH.<\/p>\n

He told\u00a0The Independent<\/em>\u00a0last year that the government of Antigua and Barbuda has not been open and transparent over the project.<\/p>\n

A subsequent EIA, which was made public, found that the runway had been built on cavernous limestone.<\/p>\n

\u201cPut into plain English, they built the airport runway above caves,\u201d said Prof Thomas. \u201cIt means that with incoming or outgoing aircraft, especially a large international plane, the runway could collapse in sinkholes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Separately, a case over the communal land rights dispute, brought by Senator Mackenzie Frank and MP Walker, won its application in October to be heard before the Privy Council in London, expected to be some time this summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really important case because it goes to the heart of whether the repeal of the land act was unconstitutional,\u201d said Prof. Thomas. \u201cIf the Privy Council decides [Mr Frank and Mr Walker] are right, a lot of what the government has done may need unpicking. It\u2019s going to be really messy.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Mr Mussington said it was important for the UN to investigate what was happening on Barbuda, he also sees defending its ecosystems and traditional ways as a much bigger part of tackling the climate crisis globally.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are part of a global system so anything that happens locally, with respect to our national park and Ramsar wetland, will affect migratory birds globally, for example. The Frigate Bird\u2019s one sanctuary is here for the entire Western Hemisphere.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have signed onto these conventions \u2013 biodiversity, climate, Ramsar. Our administration needs to do the right things and follow the conventions that they have signed on to.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt it was important that we get our views out there. There is a responsibility for the world to understand what is happening is here. Because it will serve our purpose, yes, but also as a part of a global community, we have responsibilities. Our loss is going to be the world\u2019s loss as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThe climate crisis is more a problem of unequal use of resources versus using up things that are not conducive to the sustainability of the planet. We want [people] to know that when you buy into this exclusive residential property on Barbuda, you actually against Planet Earth and living sustainably.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The leading UN body on human rights has expressed \u201cdeep concerns\u201d over a sprawling resort marketed exclusively to the uber-rich being built on Barbuda, a tiny Caribbean island ravaged by recent hurricanes, and one of the last places on Earth to be communally owned. 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