UNC mourns the passing of Dr Daphne Phillips

The Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress has an­nounced the pass­ing of for­mer Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Dr Daphne Phillips at age 82. Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly, friends, col­leagues, and as­so­ciates of Dr Phillips.

Phillips served in the Bas­deo Pan­day ad­min­is­tra­tion be­tween 1995 and 2001. Dur­ing that pe­ri­od, she held the po­si­tions of Min­is­ter of Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment, Cul­ture and Women’s Af­fairs; Min­is­ter of Cul­ture and Gen­der Af­fairs; and Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Com­mu­ni­ty Em­pow­er­ment, Sport and Con­sumer Af­fairs. She al­so served as a Gov­ern­ment Sen­a­tor. She lat­er re­turned to par­lia­ment as an Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor in 2008.

Ac­cord­ing to the par­ty, Phillips act­ed as Prime Min­is­ter on sev­er­al oc­ca­sions dur­ing her min­is­te­r­i­al tenure. Per­sad-Bisses­sar not­ed their ser­vice to­geth­er and recog­nised her long in­volve­ment in the par­ty. In 2024, the par­ty pre­sent­ed her with a Long-Ser­vice Award for her years of con­tri­bu­tion.

Phillips joined the UNC at its for­ma­tion in 1991 af­ter pre­vi­ous­ly serv­ing in the Peo­ple’s Pop­u­lar Move­ment led by Michael Als. She lat­er held roles with­in the par­ty’s in­ter­nal struc­ture, in­clud­ing mem­ber­ship on the UNC Na­tion­al Ex­ec­u­tive.

Be­fore en­ter­ing pub­lic life, Phillips pur­sued stud­ies in so­ci­ol­o­gy, be­hav­iour mod­i­fi­ca­tion, health, and de­vel­op­ment at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies in Trinidad and Ja­maica, and lat­er at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Illi­nois at Chica­go. She be­gan her ed­u­ca­tion at Bish­op Anstey High School and Os­mond High School.

She al­so worked in nurs­ing, mid­wifery, and nurse ed­u­ca­tion and lec­tured at ter­tiary in­sti­tu­tions, in­clud­ing the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies.

The UNC said her con­tri­bu­tion will re­main part of the par­ty’s his­to­ry.