SECRETARY-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), H. E. Irwin LaRocque, on Friday emphasised the importance of the Council for Security and Law Enforcement (CONSLE) in the Region’s security strategy and architecture, when he addressed the opening of the 20th Meeting of CONSLE in St. Georges, Grenada.
Alluding to the current global, regional and national security environments, Ambassador LaRocque said” “The importance of CONSLE cannot be overstated; it underscores the foresight of our Heads of Government in amending the Revised Treaty to incorporate [CONSLE] as an Organ of the Community, and CARICOM IMPACS as the nerve centre of the regional crime and security agenda.”
The Secretary-General informed that the Community continues to develop its operational and legal framework to combat crime, and to enhance citizen security, and highlighted several developments, including the operation of the Region’s Integrated Ballistic Information Network (IBIN), currently in five countries, and plans for additional ones; signed legal instruments including a CARICOM Arrest Warrant Treaty, Return and Sharing of Recovered Assets and a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty; and an Advanced Passenger Information System (APIS).
In this last regard, he also informed that APIS, which has resulted in the flagging and apprehension of Persons of Interest, has expanded to all 15 member states of the Community, and received interest from Associate Members and other states in the wider Region. Notwithstanding the advances made as a result of the Region’s strategy and architecture, Ambassador LaRocque said the high incidence of crime committed with small arms and light weapons, particularly homicides, continues to be a source of much concern for the Community.
“The statistics show that at least 70 per cent of these violent crimes recorded have been perpetrated with the use of illegal firearms,” he said. With reference to the emerging challenge of the “increasing flow of migrants and refugees” and its implications for human trafficking and the movement of illegal firearms and narcotics, Ambassador LaRocque said, “there is need for us to be more vigilant.”
According to the Secretary-General, boosting the capacity of individual Member States to deal with the challenge is one of the steps that has been taken. “CARICOM IMPACS has, with assistance from the Tenth European Development Fund, trained more than one thousand border security officers in areas such as human trafficking targeting and risk assessment,” he said.
