Caribbean Community (Caricom) member states are hopeful for a successful conclusion to the final negotiation session of the United Nations diplomatic conference on an arms trade treaty which began at UN Headquarters, New York, on Monday.
A release from the Caricom secretariat (CCS) said that such an outcome to the ten-day conference is of vital importance to the member states and at the recent intersessional meeting of Heads of Government in Haiti last February, the leaders had expressed the hope that “the international community adopts tangible and effective measures to regulate the trade in conventional weapons” at this UN conference.
The Heads had also expressed grave concern over the unregulated trade in conventional weapons, including small arms and light weapons and their ammunition, “which has exacted an unbearable toll on the security and the well-being of our citizenry, and the development of our States.” At the intersessional meeting, they took the opportunity to voice their concerns to the Attorney General of the United States, Eric Holder who met with them in Haiti.
The CCS said that to prepare for the UN conference, the community held in early March in St Vincent and the Grenadines, the fourth regional workshop on negotiations for the United Nations arms trade treaty. In opening the session, the Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, Dr Ralph Gonsalves bemoaned “the weak, ineffectual and non-existent global regulations that facilitate the free flow of arms from the factories of wealthy corporations into the hands of impoverished and senseless criminals, or hardened ones, and morally bankrupt terrorists.” He added that those regulations must be “tightened and crafted into robust safeguards that materially improve and protect the lives of our citizens.”
The secretariat said that community is hopeful that the major arms manufacturing nations would play a positive role in bringing the negotiations to a successful conclusion.
