July 2023. The CARICOM Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS) and The United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC), continue to coordinate organizational efforts under the Caribbean Firearms Roadmap to Prevent the Illicit Trafficking and Proliferation of Arms and Ammunition.
Regular meetings are held amongst partner agencies to align efforts, develop coordinated strategies and share lessons learned in relation to the implementation of the Caribbean Firearms Roadmap. Roadmap Partner agencies include the Organization of American States (OAS), the World Customs Organization (WCO), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), INTERPOL and the Small Arms Survey.
At the most recent partner meeting held on 10 July, CARICOM IMPACS formally launched a partner coordination platform which was developed using in-house expertise. This platform was developed to address the need for an established repository of information and allows various partner agencies to input activities as well as outline intended outcomes. This will ensure a complementary strategy in achieving the targets set out as priorities by Caribbean countries.
The Caribbean Firearms Roadmap was adopted in July 2020 by 15 Caribbean States and the Dominican Republic with a view to making the region safer by addressing the illicit proliferation of firearms and ammunition. International partners have since supported Caribbean States through the provision of expertise and best practices towards the adoption of sustainable solutions, consistent with international norms and the Caribbean context, to control, eradicate, prevent, and prosecute the illicit possession, proliferation and misuse of firearms and ammunition.
These meetings and the newly launched platform are both mechanisms that support progress towards achieving the goals of the Caribbean Firearms Roadmap. This process has shown itself to be essential in the integrated regional strategy for a safer Caribbean by preventing and combatting armed violence and the illicit proliferation of weapons.