Legal and diplomatic centre
Meet the Team
CAROLINE MAIR-TOBY
Founder | Executive Director
Caroline Mair-Toby is the founding Director for the Institute for Small Islands; an Attorney at Law at Mair and Company; and a Director at the Fondes Amandes Reforestation Community Project; and a Director of Legibus Three Limited. Most recently, she was a Director on the Board of the Environmental Management Authority of Trinidad and Tobago; a legal advisor and negotiator with the Trinidad and Tobago delegation to COP27 Egypt 2022 and COP28 Dubai 2023. Caroline has been advising at the climate negotiations since 2011 with first FIELD and then LRI, facilitating legal and technical advice to Small Island Developing States (SIDS), Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and civil societies including Indigenous Peoples. She is working on climate justice and Indigenous rights issues around the world, including the Greater Caribbean (Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica), Botswana, Australia, Colombia. She read Caribbean, Indian and African postcolonial literature for her BA at the University of Pennsylvania; environmental and commercial law for her LLB at Queen Mary, University of London; and an environmental law and human rights for her LLM at City Law School, University of London (formerly the Inns of Court School of Law).
Tricia Alcendor
Head of Litigation, Legal Advice Centre | Centre for Rights of the Child
Tricia Alcendor is a lawyer, advocate, and interdisciplinary thinker with over a decade of experience navigating legal, cultural, and policy spaces. She holds a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Alternative Dispute Resolution, a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from York University (Glendon College), a Certificate in Law and Social Thought, and an Honours Law Degree (LLB) from the University of Sheffield. She was called to the Bar in 2014.
A proud Kalinago woman, Tricia brings both lived experience and professional insight to her work. Her Indigenous heritage has deeply shaped her commitment to justice, cultural preservation, and equity for communities historically excluded from mainstream policy discourse. Her early volunteer work in nursing stations in remote parts of Manitoba and near the Northwest Territories offered her a unique perspective on community resilience, health disparities, and the need for systemic reform.
As part of the team at the Institute of Small Islands, Tricia contributes to interdisciplinary dialogue and analysis on the challenges and opportunities facing small island states and communities worldwide. Her work focuses on advocacy, legal reform, and amplifying the voices of island peoples at the intersection of law, sustainability, culture, and climate justice.
She is also a seasoned family lawyer and litigator, known for her fierce advocacy, strategic mindset, and culturally responsive approach to conflict resolution. She has extensive experience handling high-conflict family law matters, and she brings that same precision and passion to her policy work at the Institute.
In 2022, Tricia was honoured as one of the 100 Accomplished Black Canadian Women, a recognition of her impact, leadership, and dedication to transformative change.
Alexander Brooks
Attorney at Law | Legal Advice Centre
Al Brooks (he/any) is a movement lawyer working with the Garifuna Nation to protect their ecosystems and establish indigenous sovereignty and nationhood across borders. He also represents incarcerated people and criminal defendants targeted for social justice activism in California and Alabama. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Law Practice at Tuskegee University. Al organizes with Unlock the Bar, the Black Youth Project 100, and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. Al is also a member of the National Lawyer Guild's United People of Color Caucus, the Just Transition Lawyering Network, and Law for Black Lives. Al is a graduate of the New York University School of Law where he was a Root-Tilden-Kern Scholar and directed the NYU Law Prison Teaching Project.
The Cultural Heritage Centre
Dr. Isis Semaj-Hall
Head of Cultural Studies
Dr. Isis Semaj-Hall is a decolonial feminist and cultural analyst. Born in Jamaica and raised in New York City, Semaj-Hall earned her BA from the University of Pennsylvania and her MA and PhD from the University of Maryland, College Park. In real and digital spaces she bridges academic training with an intention to use words to open minds and eliminate access walls and glass ceilings. She is a co-founder and editor of "PREE: Caribbean Writing," the author of the “write pon di riddim” blog, and a digital disruptor using social media as a space for cultural and political debate. She has written essays and commentaries on a wide range of topics including identity, remix theory, Ishawna, dub, and dancehall. Since 2016 she has been a lecturer in the Department of Literatures in English at the University of the West Indies, Mona (Jamaica) where she explores gender, the creative digital, Caribbean literature, and popular culture. Follow her on IG @riddim.writer and on Twitter @isissemajhall.
Dr. Sharda Patesar
Artist in Residence | Cultural heritage, Climate Change, and Fusion
Dr. Sharda Patasar is a freelance musician, writer and researcher. Her main academic interests cover folk music cultures, religion and religious iconography. Her most notable work has been the study of the Ganesh Festival in Trinidad, published in the Journal of Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas (Brill, 2016) and Pichkaaree music published in the essay collection Shabd Aur Sangeet: Unravelling Song Texts in India (Three Essays Collective/Flame University, India, 2019). She has written columns on arts and culture for the Trinidad and Tobago Newsday and other local magazines.
In 2020 she was selected as one of eighteen international writers to work on an online collaborative fiction project funded by Kulturbryggan, a Swedish Arts Council. Her work can be found on the online archive at https://bbu.world/ under her pseudonym Shruthi.
As a musician, she has given concerts at home and abroad. Her main musical work has been experimental in nature and she has worked collaboratively with various artists and writers to render music that converses with sound, light and words.
She has also composed music for local films most notable among them Coolie Pink and Green (2009) and Voices of a Century: Interviews with East Indian Centenarians (2018). Her most recent work where she served as Co-Director/Producer was a documentary short, Sacred Spaces: Ganga Dhaara (2020) which was screened at the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival 2020. The film also earned Special Mention at the Global Shorts International Film Competition 2021.
The Peace, Justice & Sovereignty
Special Advisory Council
Cynthia Ellis-Lubafu Isieni
Cultural Diplomat | Peace, Justice and Sovereignty Special Advisory Council
Cynthia Ellis-Lubafu Isieni is a distinguished Indigenous leader, cultural diplomat, and development strategist whose influence spans more than five decades across the Caribbean, the Americas, and international institutions. She advances a global agenda centred on Indigenous sovereignty, cultural preservation, food security, environmental stewardship, and community resilience.
Here are just a few examples of her regional leadership. She contributes to the implementation of the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples through the Working Group (WG-DADIN), participating in shaping hemispheric dialogue, policy frameworks, and advocacy strategies affecting Indigenous communities across the region.
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She played a role in shaping Belize's first national five-year development plan, working alongside United Nations expert at a formative moment in the country's history. Her contributions helped inform policy directions in areas of rural development, social inclusion, and national planning.
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Her involvement in pre-independence negotiations in Belize further reflects her position as a trusted intermediary during periods of social tension and political transition.
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Her regional and international representation includes participation in the Conference of African Women Leaders in Dakar, Senegal, and engagement within Commonwealth and CARICOM frameworks, particularly in areas concerning youth, women, and community development.
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Her work in Jamaica included collaboration with Professor Kamau Brathwaite, supporting the teaching and preservation of Garifuna history within academic spaces. She also trained under renowned cultural practitioners Olive Lewin and Rex Nettleford, grounding her leadership in the traditions of Caribbean dance, folklore, and cultural expression.
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During the 1980s, she emerged as a central architect of the women’s movement in Belize, organising at a national level and advancing public awareness around gender equity, development, and social justice.
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She led the organisation of Belize's first International Women's Day celebration in 1983, creating a national platform for recognising and advancing women's contributions.
Esmeralda de Belgique
Peace, Justice and Sovereignty Special Advisory Council
Princess Esmeralda of Belgium is a journalist, author, documentary filmmaker, public speaker, and activist.
She has written seven books among which “ Terre “ ( Editions Racine, 2011) and “ Femmes Prix Nobel de la Paix” ( Editions Avant-Propos, 2014) and co-produced four documentaries among which “ Virunga, de l’espoir pour tout un peuple” ( 2016) and “ Amazonia, the Heart of Mother Earth” (2023).
An environmental and human rights campaigner, especially for the rights of women and indigenous peoples, she is the President of the Leopold III Fund for Nature Exploration and Conservation, created in 1972 by her late father who was one of the first European to visit the Xingu National Park in Brazil in 1964. Chair of Friendship Belgium, an NGO working in Bangladesh with the most vulnerable people through programs of education, health, women’s empowerment and climate adaptation, she is the Honorary President of CARE Belgium, Ambassador for WWF UK and WWF Belgium and Stop Ecocide International.
The Honourable Mr. Justice Rolston Nelson
Peace, Justice and Sovereignty Special Advisory Council
The Honourable Mr. Justice Rolston Nelson is former Judge (2005-2017) at the Caribbean Court of Justice
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The Honourable Mr. Justice Rolston Nelson obtained his secondary education at Queen’s Royal College, where he was a House Scholar and National Scholar. The then Mr. Nelson read Modern Languages and Jurisprudence at the University of Oxford, graduating with Honours in each discipline. He later specialised in commercial law and was awarded the degree of Master of Laws (LLM) of the University of London. Mr. Nelson was called to the Bar at Lincoln’s Inn in 1970, and entered Chancery Chambers as a pupil of two of the leading Chancery Juniors. In 1973, he was appointed a tutor at the Norman Manley Law School in Jamaica, and was admitted to practise at the Jamaican Bar in the same year. Two years later, in 1975, Mr. Nelson was admitted to practise at the Trinidad & Tobago Bar and began private practice in 1976. In October 1993, he was admitted to the Inner Bar as a senior counsel.
Mr. Justice Nelson was sworn in directly from the Bar as Justice of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Judicature of Trinidad & Tobago on Wednesday 12 May 1999, by then Acting President of the Republic, Mr. Ganace Ramdial. Mr. Justice Nelson was sworn in as Judge of the Caribbean Court of Justice on Tuesday 1 February 2005, by His Excellency Professor George Maxwell Richards, then President of the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago. As Senior Judge, Mr. Justice Nelson has served as Acting President of the Court on several occasions.
In addition to his private practice, Mr. Justice Nelson has been an Associate Tutor at the Hugh Wooding Law School since 1978. He is the author of several articles and case notes appearing in legal journals, including the British Tax Review and the Jamaica Law Journal. From 1987-1999 Mr. Justice Nelson was the editor of The Lawyer, the journal of the Law Association of Trinidad & Tobago, of whose every council he was an elected member since its inception until his elevation to the Bench. He is a former vice-president of the association, and a member of the Rules Committee of Trinidad & Tobago as a nominee of the association. He is an Honorary Distinguished Fellow of the University of the West Indies.
Mr. Justice Nelson is a former chairman of the Trinidad & Tobago Unit Trust Corporation, presiding over the growth of funds under management to over $1 billion in 1997. He is also ex-chairman of the Workers’ Bank (1989) Limited, and a former director of Republic Bank Limited.
Mr. Justice Nelson was selected from among senior Commonwealth Judges as the Inns of Court Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies for 2010-2011.