CARIBBEAN-Regional symposium on violence ends with a declaration of war on guns.

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PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders ended a two-day regional symposium on violence as a public health issue, declaring war on guns to combat the illegal trade, which they said: “provides the weapons that contribute significantly to crime and violence in our region.”

In addition, the delegates attending the symposium, including academics, crime experts, police commissioners, and religious and nongovernment organizations, said they are alarmed by the epidemic of crime and violence in the Caribbean.

They said it is fueled by illegal guns and organized criminal gangs that “threaten our democracy and the stability of our societies.”

In the Declaration titled “War on Guns,” the regional leaders said they were also calling on the United States to join the Caribbean in “our war on guns and urgently adopt and take action to stop the illegal exportation of firearms and ammunition into the Caribbean.

“We lament the disproportionate share of our national budges that we are compelled to allocate to measures to address crime, violence, and national security as well as mental health and other health-related challenges that directly result from the illegal exportation of guns to our shores.

“We underscore our commitment to utilizing all human, financial, and other resources to rid our region of the scourge of illicit weapons, the regional leaders said in their Declaration, adding, “We reiterate that the Caribbean must be a Zone of Peace, which will allow us to achieve our goal of a secure, stable and prosperous Community for all our citizens.”

Speaking at a news conference, the host, Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley, told reporters that the CARICOM leaders who met here had also agreed to implement a ban on assault rifles.

He said during the symposium, one of the experts had outlined that the production and sale of handguns in the United States “in recent times saw these heavier, more lethal and destructive assault weapons that are designed for military use, for maximum destruction, those weapons are now weapons of choice and the production levels are higher than the…handguns.

“Those weapons have begun to appear in our country. They are now common in the hands of criminals who get them through illegal trade, but they are also being licensed by the state and put in the hands of civilians.

“We are saying that we do not require those weapons within our societies because of their outcome in the presence of the societies. So we can continue to provide a certain amount of protection with handguns, and we are saying having the volume of those guns in our communities on a scale where easily available assault weapons can carry with it what we are seeing elsewhere, it has serious destructive outcomes”.

The regional leaders have agreed to stand with Mexico on its legal action again US gun manufacturers and retailers and establish an entity under the CARICOM Implementing Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS) to assist in the containment of corruption and financial crimes, including money laundering and cybercrimes, through greater collaboration to harmonize related legislation and operational processes.

They have also noted the cost of the crime epidemic on the region’s social, economic, and health systems, saying they are “determined to ensure that our people of the Caribbean can exist in an environment of peace and safety.”

They said they seized on the urgent need to reverse the normalization of violence in social interaction and restore social solidarity bonds. They remain convinced that what is the multi-faceted nature of violent crime and its pervasive effects require a “robust regional response” that includes a public health approach, which is an all of the social strategies including family, church, academia, cultural and sports personalities, minority political parties and broader civil society.

They acknowledge the concerns of the Caribbean population that there is a tilting of the balance between the rights of the individual and the public safety interests of the whole of society, which is having a debilitating effect on the rights of the community to live in peaceful societies, particularly given the trend for persons on murder charges to be granted bail.
The leaders said they have agreed to strengthen the development of security as a fourth pillar of CARICOM “so that collectively we can better address the extra-territorial threats to citizen security, including strengthening the capacity of the Community’s security and justice agencies to adopt and implement a public health approach.”

They have agreed to undertake a comprehensive overhaul of the criminal justice system to address criminal terrorists, focusing on proactive management of prosecutions, sentencing, and the diversion of young people at risk.

They will seek to strengthen regional forensic capabilities and collaboration among national forensic agencies to improve the quality of evidence, speed the conduct of trials, and prepare provincial model legislation to bring greater harmonization and efficiency to developing and revising national laws.

In addition, the leaders say they will “immediately and effectively implement the CARICOM Arrest Warrant Treaty” and augment the jurisdiction of magistrates, considering defendants’ options to judge-only trials and the intra-regional rotation of judges and magistrates to admit or foster their more significant exposure.

They have agreed to strengthen the capacity of the Regional Intelligence Fusion Centre (RIFC) to deliver its mandate through the development of agreed protocols for data sharing amongst member states.

The education systems will be reformed to “empower our citizens and better enable their socio-emotional development, in recognition that the social and emotional learning of the child is as important as technical and academic achievements.”

The two-day symposium, held under the theme “The Crime Challenge,” also agreed on empowering and engaging young people as “positive content developers to offset the negative impact of social media and engage with the creative industries to re-engineer culturally acceptable norms.”

The symposium agreed to promote public awareness and education campaigns in the various communities that challenge harmful beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors contributing to crime and violence.

“Work with all sectors and institutions to improve the equitable access to services and options for rehabilitation and reintegration into society, psychosocial support and parental education, addressing domestic violence, and integrating mental issues to treat with crime and violence,” as well as “develop and implement targeted programs and strategies to address vulnerable young youth at risk of becoming perpetrators and victims of crime.”

The leaders have also agreed to appoint an “Eminent Person” to lead and advise them and the Guyana-based CARICOM Secretariat “on further strategies and reforms and effectively operationalizing Heads’ decisions.”

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