Saint Lucia Hosts Forum To Stop Illegal Flow of Weapons

On Tuesday, officials from the Caribbean Community (Caricom) and the Dominican Republic are set to meet to participate in the Third Annual Meeting of States on the Roadmap for Firearms, official sources disclosed.

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The event, which began Tuesday and ends Wednesday, is organized by the Caricom Crime and Security Implementation Agency (Impacs) and the United Nations Regional Center for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (Unlirec), in collaboration with the government of Saint Lucia.

According to a statement from the Office of the Saint Lucian Prime Minister, Philip J. Pierre, in addition to security ministers and other high-level representatives from the region, the forum convenes other international guests to discuss ongoing efforts to combat the illicit proliferation and misuse of firearms and ammunition,

The statement also said that the trafficking and illegal use of such lethal devices cause high rates of homicide and crime in many Caribbean countries, which negatively affects public security, and to a large extent also the socioeconomic development throughout the region.

To address these challenges, the fifteen Caricom States and the Dominican Republic adopted in 2020 a strategy known as the “Roadmap for the Implementation of Caribbean Priority Actions on the Illicit Proliferation of Firearms and Ammunition throughout the Caribbean sustainably by 2030.”

According to several reports, since then, the instrument serves as a guiding document to achieve agreed objectives, which include strengthening regulatory frameworks on firearms and ammunition; reduce illicit flow into, within and out of the region, and strengthen law enforcement capacity to combat illegal trafficking.

According to the statement, in order to reach these objectives, the States draw up National Action Plans, which establish their own priorities and timetables..

During the first of its days, the meeting is set to focus on the operational aspects of the Roadmap, including the importance of evidence-based policy formulation based on data collection efforts and a robust monitoring and evaluation framework.

Participants will also share best practices and lessons learned from national flagship initiatives to address gun violence across the region, the release reported.