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NEW YORK, USA – Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member states will be pressing 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 in New York on Monday.

Such an outcome to the ten-day conference is of vital importance to the member states of CARICOM and at the recent intersessional meeting of heads of government in Haiti last February, leaders expressed the hope that “the international community adopts tangible and effective measures to regulate the trade in conventional weapons” at this UN conference.

In preparation for this 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.”

At the Haiti meeting, the heads of government 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.” They took the opportunity at the intersessional meeting to voice their concerns to US attorney general Eric Holder, who met with them in Haiti.

The Community is hopeful that the major arms manufacturing nations would play a positive role in bringing the negotiations to a successful conclusion.

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