UNITED NATIONS, CMC – Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley Thursday night reiterated a call for the international community to adopt measures to deal with the proliferation of illegal firearms that he warned brings untold suffering to families and communities worldwide.
Rowley told the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) that only today in his country, “we experienced the loss of lives of five members of one family killed by an assailant with an assault weapon,” including a 10-year-old child.
He said that this situation has worsened mainly because of the accelerated commercial availability, coupled with the illegal trafficking from countries of manufacture into the almost defenseless territories of the Caribbean.
Rowley said Trinidad and Tobago, with just over 1.4 million population, recorded over 600 murders last year, “90 percent of which involved handguns and increasingly assault weapons.
“Within our best efforts and a huge consumption of our already scarce resources, we have seen over 400 violent firearm-driven killings already this year,” Rowley said, adding, “This is a crisis shared by almost all the Caribbean territories and is to be added to the challenges that stand in the way of any successful tackling of the development goals already identified.”
The Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister told the international community that Port of Spain, “both individually and as part of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), has attempted to devise solutions and interventions to address these challenges meaningfully and holistically.”
He said earlier this year, CARICOM leaders and other stakeholders met in Trinidad and Tobago for a regional symposium addressing crime and violence as a public health issue.
“In this context, we know the need for cooperation at all levels. Accordingly, Trinidad and Tobago remains fully committed to the arms trade treaty and its objectives. We also look forward to continuing to work collaboratively with our regional and international partners, especially the United States, to urgently stem the illicit trade in illegal firearms, most of which are produced by gun manufacturers and promoters based in this country”.
Rowley said Trinidad and Tobago appreciates the recent support from Washington in strengthening its cooperation with CARICO in confronting the scourge of gun violence, “which not only disturbs our safety but threatens our sense of security and even the very democratic states themselves.
He said the proliferation of violent crime and other crises would provide fertile conditions to destabilize any country. In this context, Trinidad and Tobago supports the CARICOM position that all nations respect the Caribbean Sea as a zone of peace.
He said Trinidad and Tobago remains “deeply concerned” at Haiti’s ongoing political and socioeconomic situation that has been thrown further with the July 7, 2021, assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.
The interim government in the French-speaking CARICOM member state has called on the international community to send a multi-national force to maintain peace and security.
Rowley said that the situation there is causing “unimaginable humanitarian, socioeconomic and security consequences,” even as the region applauds the position of Kenya to help lead a multi-national peacekeeping force into the country.
He said Rwanda’s offer to help is also very significant and commendable.
“We also urge the international community to collaborate with Haiti towards the achievement of a credible solution to its current crisis that would guarantee that the country and its people are not left behind.”
Rowley, quoting the lyrics of David Rudder, a Trinidad and Tobago calypsonian, on the past situations in Haiti and telling the international community that one day it will understand the situation in Haiti, added, “That day has come, that day is now.
“We, the United Nations, gathered here, must prioritize authorization for the external help Haiti desperately needs. Just like everywhere else in the world, Haiti deserves peace, Haiti deserves prosperity, Haiti deserves progress, and Haiti deserves sustainability.
“Haiti requires the intervention of the United Nations now,” Rowley said, assuring the global organization that his country, “as an honest broker, remains fully committed to working with the government of Haiti and all other stakeholders to arrive at an indigenous solution to address the crisis in that country comprehensively.”
In his wide-ranging speech, Prime Minister Rowley said that climate change is undeniably an existential threat to the global community and does not recognize geographical boundaries. “We also acknowledge that our people, the people of small island developing states, those who bear the least culpability for the climate crisis, are the ones who continue to be most disproportionately affected.”
He said the experts have noted that this past July was the hottest month on record and that global ocean temperatures were also at record levels.
“Most disconcertingly, we noted with justifiable alarm the recent dire warning by scientists that without ambitious climate action, we will exceed the critical 1.5 degrees Celsius temperature threshold. However, recent developments have shown that over-ambitious net-zero targets should be independent of small island nations.
“As we are called upon to be game changers, on this issue, we have a responsibility for the survival and continued existence of life on this planet that no other generation of leaders has had.”
Rowley said that the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 28), which gets underway in the United Arab Emirates in November, “is crucial” and that it must result in a road map that brings the world nearer to the track by ensuring that NDCs are aligned with the 1.5-degree temperature goal.
“Nationally determined contributions must become nationally implemented contributions. Trinidad and Tobago is implementing its commitment to installing some infrastructure for sustainable energy supply.
“We urge developed countries to increase their support for the second replenishment of the Green Climate Fund. If these commitments were to be honored in full, sooner rather than later, they would go a long way towards rebuilding trust and reigniting global solidarity, particularly for the Global South.”
Rowley said that the global economic crisis has landed heavily on the developing world, with Small Island Developing States (SIDS), such as Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean, facing the harshest impacts of the socioeconomic fallout.
“For this reason, the next 10-year program of action will be crucial to ensuring that no one is left behind. We call on the international community to support the Fourth International Conference on SIDS and to reach an ambitious and transformative global blueprint that will drive the sustainable development ambitions of SIDS towards long-term resilient prosperity.
“We will also continue to advocate that international financial institutions should be sensitive to the specific circumstances of developing countries and their challenges. “Trinidad and Tobago, therefore, reiterates its support for developing a Multidimensional Vulnerability Index, the Bridgetown Initiative, and any other effort that addresses the most pressing needs of developing countries, including those encountering liquidity challenges and debt distress.”
The Multivulnerability Index is a measure of the exposure of a population to some hazard. Typically, the index is a composite of multiple quantitative indicators that, via some formula, deliver a single numerical result. At the same time, the Bridgetown Initiative, spearheaded by Barbados Minister Mia Mottley, aims to reform how wealthy countries finance poor countries in a climate crisis.
and then 