TCI News
TCI: PNP’s Response to FAC’s Recommendations – April 2019
#Providenciales, April 20, 2019 – Turks and Caicos – Global Britain and the British Overseas Territories: Resetting the relationship – The Progressive National Party’s Position – Global Britain – is the term coined to capture the UK’s post-Brexit foreign policy. The fact that a review of its relationship with its’ territories in the Caribbean is being considered within the context of its foreign policy is indicative of its historic thinking regarding the Caribbean Overseas Territories: they have always been used as pawns in the UK geopolitical chess game. This latest recommendation is no different and is driven by the UK post Brexit strategy regarding its future on the world stage.
In the case of the Turks and Caicos Islands the UK has always played constitutional “fast and loose” while in many cases refusing to take responsibility for its reserved powers beyond the imposition of sanctions. These include the suspension of the Country’s constitution on two occasions. The results in each case has always pivoted away from the best interest of the people of these Islands. The most recent resulting in the resetting of the economic hegemony in favour of foreign interest; and an ongoing legal price tag that is significantly disproportionate to the GDP of the islands thereby impacting its’ ability to adequately fund much needed social programs.
Given the history of the relationship between the UK and her Caribbean Overseas Territories; and the current preoccupation by British Politicians with Brexit and its consequences, the FAC report and most of its recommendations appear to have as its intention the appeasement of Caribbean Overseas Territory Governments as a pretext to persuade them to legalise same sex marriage and expand the franchise in the various territories. This view is supported by the myriad of other issues raised in the report requiring institutional and other fundamental changes in the relationship before any of them could be attained, assuming the UK were inclined to oblige. In contrast, the same sex marriage and expansion of the franchise issues merely require their passage into law by the House of Assembly, or imposition by order in council by the UK Parliament. However, on these two issues the Progressive National Party is resolute in its opposition. We reproduce these two recommendations verbatim and set out below our reasons for our objections.
Recommendation 13
The Government should set a date by which it expects all OTs to have legalised same-sex marriage. If that deadline is not met, the Government should intervene through legislation or an Order in Council.
A review of the FAC report leads one to conclude that UK politicians are engaged in a strategy of attrition to neutralise the authority of elected politicians and marginalise the voice of the indigenous people of the Caribbean Overseas Territories instead of resetting their thinking to accommodate and recognise the cultural diversity of places and people for whom they have responsibility in the international community.
It is insensitive and imperialistic to threaten through whatever means the imposition of standardise cultural values of the UK and Europe on UK Caribbean Overseas Territories by persons unelected by them, and who cannot identify with their past or understand their aspiration. After all, one of the main arguments of the Brexiteers are that the UK membership in the EU undermines British Sovereignty because of Europe’s ability to legislate and make policy decisions binding on the UK. The view by the FAC for the Caribbean Overseas Territories is in direct contrast to what Britain wants for itself.
The recommendations of the FAC to legalise same sex marriage in the Caribbean Overseas Territories is also hypocritical and is inconsistent with what obtains in the UK. This is demonstrated by way of two examples. Chris Bryant a member of the committee and an openly gay member of the commons left the ordained ministry because his conscience dictated that a gay lifestyle was incompatible with the priesthood. The people of the Overseas Territories also have the God given right to exercise their collective conscience to choose for themselves on which side of this issue they should stand. The hyperbolic metaphor of Matthew 7:5 “You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” is also appropriate here given the continuing ban on same-sex marriage in the British Territory of Northern Ireland.
Duplicitous standards is now common practice by the UK Parliament in how Caribbean Overseas Territories are treated compared with for example European Crown Dependencies as evidenced in the push for Public Registries of Interest in the Caribbean Overseas Territories.
Same sex relationship has been decriminalised in the TCI since 2001, and no one had been charged with a related offences decade before that. What people do in the privacy of their own space should be of no concern to anyone else. But to require a country to legislate behaviour contrary to their belief system is a violation of their rights and must be resisted to its fullest. Many of us have family members and friends with same sex preferences. This does not interfere with our empathy or love for them but when same sex marriage is regarded by the majority of Turks and Caicos Islanders as being anathema to the direct admonition of God to whom we believe we owe our greatest loyalty, any attempt to force it into law is contrary to the will of the people and will be resisted by the PNP. Turks and Caicos Islands must now take a stand even if it means ending the relationship as we now know it.
Recommendation 14
The UK Government should initiate a consultation with the elected governments of the OTs and work with them to agree a plan to ensure that there is a pathway for all resident UK and British Overseas Territory citizens to be able to vote and hold elected office in territory. In its response to this report the FCO should lay out a timetable for this consultation process and set a deadline for phasing out discriminatory elements of belongership, or its territory-specific equivalents.
The FAC recommendations that the franchise be expanded to include UK citizen and BOTC citizens resident in the islands again betrays the hypocrisy of their intent. The the premise on which it is based is a non-sequitur and in direct contrast to Britain’s xenophobic vote to leave the European Union. The difference is that Britain’s population is somewhere north of 67 million people compared with 35 thousand in the Turks and Caicos of which an estimated 55% are non-Turks and Caicos Islanders. This gap will widen as the economy of the islands grow and the demand for labour grows with it. Organic growth in the number of persons qualifying for status will mean that the franchise will automatically be broaden. Turks and Caicos Islanders with heritage rights will therefore become a very minor fraction of the population in the future. The Progressive National Party will not accede to the FAC agenda of political and cultural marginalisation by accelerating the dilution of the franchise.
Gender neutral policies and legislation favouring individuals belonging to vulnerable groups are evident everywhere including the many affirmative action laws in the US in favour of African Americans and Native Americans. Legislation and policies in Canada favour First Nation People. This practice is referred to as positive discrimination and is important for social and economic justice. This right is preserved in the Constitution of the Turks & Caicos Islands and must not be tampered with.
The TCI have several pathways to citizenship including through investment, marriage, and residency. – attainment of citizenship status in some cases is as short as five years. Relaxing the rules on who may vote and hold office in the Turks and Caicos Islands is a recipe for wholesale takeover of the Islands and the relegation of the indigenous people to the margins of society – especially given the current lack of access to capital and other resources for positive growth within the Territory.
As part of resetting the relationship between its Caribbean Overseas Territories UK politicians need to reset their own thinking and Global Britain should respect the rights of Caribbean Overseas Territories to disagree on fundamental questions of value pathway to citizenship, and population policy. The benefit derived by the Turks and Caicos through its relationship with the UK after Brexit is mostly intangible. Failure to respect the rights of the Turks and Caicos people is therefore an invitation to self-determination; one that the Progressive National Party takes seriously and on which it will act with the support of the people.
Press Statement from the Leader of the Opposition
Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands (June 16th, 2026) — Experience Turks and Caicos, in collaboration with the Statistics Authority, has announced the completion and publication of the latest Visitor Exit Survey Report, providing enhanced insights into visitor behaviour, spending patterns and overall travel experiences in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
The Visitor Exit Survey is a joint initiative designed to better understand the characteristics of visitors to the destination, including their
travel motivations, length of stay, expenditure, satisfaction levels and perceptions of the Turks and Caicos Islands as a tourism destination.
While exit surveys have been conducted in previous years, this latest publication marks a significant enhancement in the way tourism data is collected and shared. It introduces a new quarterly reporting framework, with surveys conducted at the end of each quarter and findings published on a more frequent basis throughout the year.
This improved reporting cycle is intended to provide more timely and actionable insights to support tourism planning, policy development, marketing strategy formulation and broader industry decision-making.
“The Statistics Authority is pleased to partner with Experience Turks and Caicos on the Visitor Exit Survey program,” said Mr. Shirlen Forbes, Director. “As tourism remains the cornerstone of our economy, reliable and timely data is essential for understanding visitor behaviour, measuring tourism’s economic impact and supporting informed decision-making. We value our ongoing collaboration with Experience Turks and Caicos and believe these quarterly reports will provide stakeholders with valuable insights to help guide the future growth and development of the industry.”
Miss Sharissa Lightbourne, Marketing Intelligence Manager of Experience Turks and Caicos, noted that the expanded approach will allow
government and industry stakeholders to better track trends in visitor behaviour and assess the economic contribution of tourism beyond traditional arrival statistics.
“Data is the foundation of informed decision-making and plays a critical role in shaping the future of our tourism industry. The insights contained in this report provide a deeper understanding of who our visitors are, how they experience the destination, and how they engage with our tourism product. This information is invaluable to our hotel partners, service providers, investors and other stakeholders as they refine their business strategies, enhance the visitor experience and identify new opportunities for growth. I would like to thank the Statistics Authority for its continued collaboration and commitment to strengthening tourism intelligence in the Turks and Caicos Islands. I encourage everyone in the industry to download the report and explore the valuable insights it contains,” she said.
The findings will also support more targeted destination marketing efforts, improved visitor experience initiatives and more informed investment decisions across the tourism sector.
Experience Turks and Caicos and the Statistics Authority reaffirm their commitment to strengthening tourism intelligence and ensuring that stakeholders across the industry have access to reliable, timely and relevant data.
Download the report here: https://issuu.com/myexperiencetci/docs/tci_departing_visitor_survey_report_q1_2026
Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands – Tuesday, 16 June 2026: The Department of Disaster Management and Emergencies (DDME) has officially commenced the 2026 Atlantic Hurricane Season with a series of church visits spanning the length and breadth of
the Turks and Caicos Islands, underscoring the department’s commitment to reaching every community through fellowship and preparedness.
The initiative, began on Sunday, 31st May 2026, at Providence Baptist Church on the island of North Caicos. Greetings were brought on behalf of DDME by Ms. Andrea Clare, Community Preparedness Officer for North Caicos.
On Sunday, 7th June 2026, the team worshipped at Abundant Life Ministries Int’l on Providenciales. The Director for DDME, Lt Col (Ret’d) Jason Hills brought greetings on behalf of the department, while Ms. Bernadya Smith, Public Information and Media Manager administered a scripture reading.
Mt. Olivet Baptist Church in South Caicos was the team’s third visit, taking place on Sunday, 14 June 2026. Director Hills brought greetings to the congregation, a scripture reading was read by Ms. Yolande Williams, Community Preparedness Officer for South Caicos and the congregation was ministered through song by Ms. Tamara Hylton, Training and Education Manager.
While addressing the congregations, Director Hills stated, “At DDME we will do our part. We will track the storms, share the alerts and open the shelters when needed. But the truth is the first responders are right here in this room. You are the ones who take food to your neighbours, who pray when the winds rise. You are the ones who help TCI recover every time. So, this season, let us commit together. Let’s be ready for any storm. Not just in June but all season long. Not just with batteries and water but also with faith and community.”
Throughout the month of June, DDME will continue visiting churches across the islands to formally acknowledge the start of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season and to engage residents at the community level. These services are more than a formality, they are an opportunity for our communities to come together in faith and to be reminded that preparedness is a shared responsibility that begins long before a storm appears on the horizon.
The public is warmly encouraged to attend upcoming services and DDME Initiatives to take an active role in hurricane awareness and
family preparedness. Upcoming event schedule is as follows:
UPCOMING CHURCH SERVICES
Sunday, 21 June 2026 • Church of God of Prophecy, Conch Bar, Middle Caicos | 11:00 AM
Sunday, 28 June 2026 • St. Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, Grand Turk | 8:30 AM
OTHER UPCOMING HURRICANE SEASON INITIATIVES
Hurricane Preparedness Expo, Grand Turk Dillon Hall – Friday, 19 June 2026| 10:00 am – 2:00
Community Hurricane Scavenger Hunt, Providenciales – 4 July 2026 | Time: TBA
Families are reminded to review their emergency plans, assemble disaster supply kits and stay informed through official channels. For more information on hurricane preparedness and to stay up to date on upcoming events, please follow our official social media pages.
Instagram: ddme.tci_official
Facebook / X/ YouTube: DDME TCI
“Where are the local artists?”, This question is not simply about visibility. It’s about structure and law. And more precisely, it is about whether Turks and Caicos has fully come to terms with what it means to exist within the global framework of intellectual property while still failing to execute it locally. The absence of local artists in major developments is not an accident of taste. It is the predictable outcome of a system that recognizes rights in theory but struggles to enforce them in practice.
When culture is reduced to atmosphere, the people who produce it are reduced to suppliers as with the business license structure and how
cultural creators are categorized as retail entities which further support this framework. Their work becomes interchangeable with references and motifs. Their intellectual property becomes negotiable.
At the centre of this is the Berne Convention (1886) for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.
Protection..But, Not Really
On paper, Turks and Caicos benefits from international copyright protections through its constitutional relationship with the UK. The Berne Convention guarantees that creators (authors, musicians, painters, photographers, sculptors, filmmakers etc). automatically own rights to their work without formal registration, that sounds modern.
But the reality is; the only operative copyright framework materially available to artists in Turks and Caicos remains the Copyright Act 1911. A law written for a different century, drafted before digital reproduction and predates the very economy that uses art as a commercial asset. So while the convention exists as an international standard, the local mechanism through which an artist must assert and defend their rights is effectively anchored in the 1911 act, while the Brene convention was revised in 1971.
Regional Contrast
Countries such as Bermuda and The Bahamas have moved beyond inherited frameworks and enacted modern copyright legislation that gives real effect to the Berne Convention within their domestic systems. They have updated copyright laws aligned with contemporary use, enacted clearer enforcement pathways, provided legal recognition of digital and commercial reproduction and have systems that better position artists within the economic structure.
In other words, they have translated the Convention from principle into practice.
The Berene Convention
The Berne Convention establishes three core principles:
- automatic protection
- national treatment
- minimum standards for rights
But none of these principles enforce themselves. They require local systems to give them force, what exists is not a functioning copyright
ecosystem. It is a legal inheritance.
There is:
- no modern, locally tailored copyright regime
- no structured licensing or royalty collection systems
- limited institutional pathways for enforcement
- and a heavy reliance on outdated legal provisions to address contemporary commercial use
In this context, the Convention becomes theoretical; while artists are left to operate within a system that has not caught up.
A Cultural Economy Being Built on Outdated Law
Turks and Caicos is not lacking in the arts. It is lacking in legal infrastructure that treats art as an economic asset in real time. The reliance on the 1911 Copyright Act produces a specific set of conditions:
- reproduction rights are often misunderstood or ignored
- commercial use of artwork in marketing exists in a grey zone until challenged
- enforcement becomes expensive, slow, and reactive
- artists must carry the burden of asserting rights that should already be structurally protected
So when developments ask for culture, what they are often engaging with is not a regulated market, but an unsecured one.
Tourism, Aesthetics, and Unregulated Value
The Turks and Caicos Islands sells an image of place. That image is not just beaches and water. It is culture, even if some persons may not agree, it is identity and visual language.
Arts sit inside this concept with a contradiction: culture is used to increase property value, brand identity, and global appeal. Yet the legal system governing that culture remains outdated and under-enforced. This creates an environme nt where art can be absorbed into commercial projects without clear frameworks, artists are treated as aesthetic contributors rather than rights holders and value flows outward without structured returns.
Not because the Berne Convention allows it, but because the local system fails to prevent it.
The Berne Convention assumes a baseline: that authorship will be respected. But in jurisdictions where: legal literacy is uneven, enforcement mechanisms are weak and power imbalances are significant, that assumption collapses. What remains is a gap between what the law says could be possible (by extension as a UK terittory) and what artists can realistically enforce. That gap is filled by the continued reliance on a 1911 statute to manage 21st-century commercial realities.
Artists’ Rights
The conversation cannot stop at inclusion. It must move to ownership and enforcement. If Turks and Caicos is serious and wishes to further
expand its economic sectors via the creative economy; its reliance on the Copyright Act 1911 is no longer sufficient. A modern legal framework is required to address digital use, marketing reproduction, and commercial exploitation of work.
- Institutional Development
Systems must exist to support licensing, rights management, and dispute resolution that are accessible to local artists. - Developer Responsibility
Cultural due diligence must become standard practice. Intellectual property cannot remain an afterthought in projects that rely on cultural branding. - Repositioning the Artist
Artists must be recognised not as optional additions, but as rights holders whose work carries enforceable economic value.
To support local culture is not to decorate with it. It is to protect it, regulate it, and ensure that those who produce it participate in the value it generates. Right now, Turks and Caicos exists in a contradiction that anchors it to a 1911 legal framework without significant revision. Until that is resolved, the system will continue to produce the same outcome and so the question is no longer just: “Where are the local artists?” but;
“What legal system has been built for artists to stand on?”
Because without that system, the Berne Convention remains what it currently is in Turks and Caicos:
A principle without power.
PHOTO CAPTION: 1 Brass Manilla, artwork from the Tears of the Trouvadore series)
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