CARICOM leaders formally endorse plan to legally decolonise the UWI

CARICOM Heads of government have endorsed a plan to replace the University of the West Indies’ Royal Charter with a treaty signed and ratified by member states, completing a process that would remove the institution’s founding legal authority from the British Crown and anchor it within a Caribbean sovereign framework for the first time.

The decision was reached at the 50th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government, held in St Kitts and Nevis where Chair and Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis, Dr Terrence Drew, announced the decision.

“I think moving a step closer to indigenise that institution, that is a significant achievement for the region,” Drew said at the closing press conference of the meeting.

The University of the West Indies was established under a Royal Charter, a legal instrument granted by the British Crown, a colonial-era mechanism that has underpinned the university’s governance since its founding.

The proposed treaty would replace that framework entirely, placing the institution’s legal foundation within CARICOM’s treaty architecture instead.

Vice-Chancellor of the UWI, Sir Hilary Beckles has been championing this move, which has been part of a long running process by the region to structurally reform, as the Royal Charter remained the legal instrument through which the university derives its authority to confer degrees.

In 2025, Sir Hilary suggested that if the Royal Charter was to ever be revoked, the university could cease to exist.

This week’s endorsement by heads of government moves the proposal from a stated priority to a formally agreed mechanism with the proposed treaty designed to preserve the autonomy, governance structures, and academic freedom that have characterised the institution under the Royal Charter.