THE FIRST of three major public consultations on crime and violence in the Caribbean Community gets underway this week in Trinidad and Tobago, followed by the second next week in Jamaica and concluding with the third in St. Kitts and Nevis. It so happens that the first two CARICOM partner states are regarded as perhaps the major victims of the crime epidemic that has been plaguing this region, with Guyana, The Bahamas and more recently Belize and St. Lucia chalking up increasingly unflattering data on murders and criminal violence.
But the tragic reality today is that ALL member states of our Community are suffering, in various degrees, from the scourge of crime and violence.
The forthcoming consultations will have the benefit of a ‘Draft Action Plan’ on crime prevention, representing the cooperative work of the CARICOM Secretariat and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC).
The CARICOM Secretariat has explained that the Draft Action Plan is intended to be the guiding document for the proposed five-year programme “for social development and crime prevention.”
Consequently, it has been determined that “feedback” from stakeholders, at various levels of member states, would be most helpful in moving the draft plan to a generally accepted strategy to “address the development challenges posed by high levels of crime and violence in the region.”
This week’s consultation in Trinidad and Tobago — the CARICOM state whose Prime Minister holds portfolio responsibility among Heads of Government for “crime and security” — begins on Wednesday and concludes the following day.
The two other consultations will occur in Jamaica from September 29-30, and in St. Kitts and Nevis during October. Cuba and the Dominican Republic will also be involved in the consultations.
For the consultations to prove really useful, it would be expected that stakeholders’ representatives will come forward with objective information and recommendations resulting from research and not traditional complaints.
At the same time, it is to be hoped that the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police (ACCP) would see the value of ensuring an active presence in the trio of stakeholders’ consultations with perspectives grounded in common problems and challenges being faced in national jurisdictions.