The Second Regional Symposium on Crime and Violence as a Public Health Issue convened at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre in Guyana, bringing together CARICOM Heads of State, experts, and regional stakeholders to advance strategies addressing crime and violence across the region.
A groundbreaking legislative framework, the CARICOM Arrest Warrant Bill, was announced at the event. It is expected to enhance law enforcement’s ability to tackle cross-border crimes.
Essentially, it will standardise extradition processes across member states. Extradition is usually done to hand over a person accused or convicted of a crime to the jurisdiction of the foreign state in which the crime was committed.
Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Keith Rowley warned that once enacted, the new legislation will ensure there are “no safe harbours in any of our CARICOM territories.”
He further explained that in every CARICOM country, the law will be applied to arrest criminals.
Other important strides to tackle rising violent crimes across the region include the Advance Passenger Information and Record Bill, the Caribbean Gang Database and the Regional Integrated Ballistic Information Network.
“These are tools that will facilitate law enforcement in a very efficient way and allow law enforcement to have a little bit of an upper hand on those who plan crime against our populations,” Rowley said.
Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Dr. Keith Rowley addressing the gathering at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Trinidad (Photo: News Room/ Shaconeil Burnette/ July 3, 2023)
Meanwhile, CARICOM has adopted a public health approach to address the root causes of crime and violence, targeting social, economic, and judicial dimensions. Five key pillars were identified at the first symposium held last year in Trinidad. These include governance architecture to strengthen legislative frameworks to counter transnational crime; education and training, multisector collaboration to reduce corruption, reduce access to illegal weapons and arts, culture, and sports to engage and empower youth positively.
During his address, Guyana’s President Dr. Irfaan Ali highlighted the severe economic and social burden violence imposes on the region.
A 2017 International Monetary Fund (IMF) report found that violent crime is pervasive in the Caribbean, with 40% of citizens identifying crime as a top issue, surpassing concerns about poverty and inequality. More recently, the Inter-American Development Bank estimated the cost of crime and violence in Latin America and the Caribbean at 3.44% of the region’s GDP in 2022.
“This means that it would have cost 80 per cent of allocation for education in the region, if we didn’t had this impact we could have all increased our budgetary allocation for education by 80 per cent,” President Ali explained.
He revealed that since 2019, Guyana has increased its security budget allocation by 154 per cent.
“Imagine if we could have used 70% of that for public health or education,” he said.
The symposium on Friday provided an opportunity to assess progress and address new dimensions of crime, including gender-based violence, human trafficking, drug and arms smuggling, and financial crimes.
Both Rowley and Ali underscored the importance of continued commitment, shared purpose, and unity to build safe communities and countries.
Rowley added that police management leadership needs to collaborate and cooperate across regions to increase the apprehension and prosecution of criminals.
The symposium will allow leaders to address progress, tackle gaps and new dimensions of crime across the region.
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