President of the Senate of Saint Lucia, Alvina Reynolds was elected as Vice President of the ParlAmericas on Thursday, 29 May, 2025, at the 21st Plenary Assembly and the 9th Gathering of the Open Parliament Network in Montevideo, Uruguay.
Reynolds, who is the first Saint Lucian and OECS National to hold this position, succeeds Mrs. Bridgid Annisette-George, former Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.
According to its mandate, “ParlAmericas is an institution run by parliamentarians, for parliamentarians. It is governed by a Board of Directors comprised of executive members and sub-regional representatives designated by national parliaments from North, Central, and South America, and the Caribbean.”
The Mission of the organization is to promote parliamentary diplomacy in the Inter-American system and parliamentary engagement in multilateral spaces, generate cooperative political dialogue and collaboration between parliaments on hemispheric issues, and support parliaments and parliamentarians to fulfill their democratic functions in service of all people throughout the Americas and the Caribbean.
ParlAmericas has three permanent working groups, known as Networks, that are dedicated to parliamentary action on the themes of gender equality, open parliament, and climate change. The Networks are governed by an Executive Committee whose Presidents each hold a position of Second Vice-President on the ParlAmericas Board of Directors.
Saint Lucian, Senator, Lisa Jawahir, serves as the current Vice-President, for the Caribbean of the ParlAmericas Parliamentary Network on Gender Equality. Senator Jawahir is the first Saint Lucian and OECS National to serve in the position.
Honourable Claudius J. Francis, Speaker of the House of Assembly of Saint Lucia, also serves as a regional representative of the ParlAmericas on the Board of Directors.