The Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies has joined the na­tion in mourn­ing the pass­ing of  Hon­orary Grad­u­ate Hazel An­gela Brown. Cam­pus Prin­ci­pal Rose-Marie Belle An­toine de­scribed Brown as "a fear­less cham­pi­on of women's rights and So­cial Jus­tice, and a good col­league."

The fol­low­ing is a press re­lease from the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies: 

"The Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (The UWI), St. Au­gus­tine Cam­pus, joins with the na­tion in mourn­ing the pass­ing of Hon­orary Grad­u­ate Hazel An­gela Brown, on Thurs­day 22 Sep­tem­ber. 

Pro Vice-Chan­cel­lor and Cam­pus Prin­ci­pal Pro­fes­sor Rose-Marie Belle An­toine ex­pressed her sad­ness at the loss. 

"Hazel Brown pi­o­neered the move­ment to en­cour­age and de­vel­op women politi­cians from every, and any, par­ty so that women's voic­es could be heard and their is­sues made vis­i­ble. She was a fear­less cham­pi­on of women's rights and So­cial Jus­tice, and a good col­league." 

Lec­tur­er and Head, In­sti­tute for Gen­der and De­vel­op­ment Stud­ies (IGDS) at The UWI St. Au­gus­tine Cam­pus Dr. Sue Ann Bar­ratt de­scribed Brown as “An in­spir­ing woman, fem­i­nist fight­er and ad­vo­cate for gen­der eq­ui­ty and Jus­tice. She was re­lent­less and brave and men­tored oth­er women, es­pe­cial­ly women lead­ers to stay their course. A true cham­pi­on in­deed. Her down to earth as­sertive­ness will be missed.” 

The UWI con­ferred her with an Hon­orary Doc­tor of Laws (LLD) at the St. Au­gus­tine Cam­pus 2017 Grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny. She de­liv­ered a most mem­o­rable speech at The Fac­ul­ty of So­cial Sci­ences Grad­u­a­tion Cer­e­mo­ny. “My great­est dis­ap­point­ment dur­ing my years of ad­vo­ca­cy has been the lack of con­sis­tent, pur­pose­ful or­gan­is­ing, by peo­ple like your­selves in this room, in ar­eas of ac­tive cit­i­zen­ship. There is much talk but there is not enough of the nec­es­sary ac­tion that is re­quired around ad­vo­ca­cy for so­cial jus­tice.” 

This nec­es­sary ac­tion, she said, goes far be­yond vol­un­teer­ing. Rather peo­ple must “Get Up, Stand Up and Speak Up for Gen­der Jus­tice” and cul­ti­vate a gen­der-sen­si­tive ap­proach in every area of life to achieve an eq­ui­table and just so­ci­ety. 

Brown has been recog­nised by the UNDP and the Guyana Can­cer So­ci­ety. In 2011, she was among the first to re­ceive the Trinidad and To­ba­go Medal for the De­vel­op­ment of Women (Gold). 

The UWI St. Au­gus­tine Cam­pus ex­tends con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly of Ms. Hazel Brown."