Patricia Scotland QC, the sixth Secretary-General of the Commonwealth of Nations and the first woman has arrived in Uganda for the 9th Commonwealth Youth Ministers Meeting in Kampala.
In her first Official capacity visit to Uganda, the Secretary General arrived on Thursday, July 27, and received an official welcome at the VIP Lounge of the Entebbe International Airport and received by State Minister for Youth, Mrs Nakiwala Florence Kiyingi.
She arrived on board a flight from London after spending the past days officiating at the sixth Commonwealth Youth Games held in Nassau, Bahamas.
In her honour, a youth football gala has been organized at Uganda’s biggest stadium, Namboole, East of Kampala on Friday. Before the festivities, Prime Minister Dr. Ruhakan Rugunda will meet with Ms. Patricia Scotland at 10:00am at Office of the Prime Minister.
The 9th Commonwealth Youth Ministers Meeting (9CYMM) will bring together government ministers and senior officials, young leaders, youth workers and other stakeholders from Commonwealth member countries and beyond in at Commonwealth Resort in Munyonyo from 31 July to 4 August 2017.
The Commonwealth Secretary-General is the head of the Commonwealth Secretariat, the central body of the Commonwealth of Nations since its establishment in 1965.
On November 27, 2015, in Malta, the Commonwealth Heads of Government appointed the Rt. Hon Patricia Scotland QC of Dominica as the first woman and the sixth Commonwealth Secretary-General. She assumed office on April 1, 2016.
She was born on August 19, 1955 in Dominica and moved to the UK with her family and grew up in east London.
Ms. Scotland is a trained lawyer and became the first black woman to be appointed a Queen’s Counsel in 1991; at 35 she was also the youngest woman ever to be made a QC.
She is credited for undertaking major reform of the criminal justice system, including the introduction of the Domestic Violence Crime and Victims Act. Her other posts include Chancellor of the University of Greenwich, Patron of the Corporate Alliance Against Domestic Violence, Patron of Lifeline (Trinidad & Tobago) and the Caribbean Science Foundation.
There are fifty-three countries that make up the Commonwealth.
About CYMM
CYMM is held every four years and brings together Youth Ministers, senior government officials, youth representatives, youth workers and other youth sector stakeholders from across the Commonwealth.
Immediately prior to the CYMM, a Youth Leaders’ Forum and a Stakeholders Forum are convened, creating the opportunity for participants to reflect on the theme from their perspectives, and feed recommendations through to ministers.
The CYMM enables ministers to debate emerging youth development issues; take stock of current Commonwealth Secretariat and member government programmes; share good practice and identify collaborative opportunities; identify and agree pragmatic actions to strengthen youth. development; and agree on strategic actions to address the issues and challenges facing young people; and in so doing seize the opportunities in the Commonwealth in relation to the theme, ‘Resourcing and Financing Youth Development, Empowering Young People’
