AG: Not a Barbados issue alone

The issue of crime and violence is not immune to this island alone, but rather it is something that affects other countries in the region as well.

This is according to the Attorney General and Minister of Home Affairs, Adriel Brathwaite, who delivered remarks at the USAID-sponsored Regional Workshop “CariSECURE: Strengthening Evidence Based Decision Making for Citizen Security in the Caribbean” yesterday at the Radisson Aquatica Resort.

This is why any and all solutions that are sought must be ones that address the Caribbean as a whole and the shared experiences, knowledge and skills from other countries can be utilized by this island in finding solutions to our own problems of crime and violence and, likewise, we can also share our own experiences and knowledge, stated the Minister of Home Affairs.

“The issue of crime, the issue of youth violence, is not a Barbados issue. No. It is not a Trinidad issue. It is actually a regional issue and therefore, we need our collective experiences, we need our collective energies, to ensure that once this programme is launched across the region, that we have the best data available and that we can tackle this serious issue of youth violence in our communities.”

It is with this in mind that Brathwaite urged the delegates at the workshop drawn from ten countries including Grenada, St. Lucia, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda and St. Vincent and the Grenadines that they need to work together to discover what works so that these practices can then be implemented.

“What I do want you in your deliberations to do is to also do an analysis of what is happening in the various other terrorities. You heard about the initiatives in Guyana and Suriname. I don’t believe in reinventing the wheel. What we need to do is ascertain what really works and find somewhere within your framework to capture this information so that this can be more easily transmitted across the region.”

The Attorney General said that they can then use their collective wisdom to develop data for the region which would assist Ministers such as himself to implement effective policies and programmes targeted at reducing crime and violence among our young people.

“One of the criticisms that we have had in Barbados is our lack of data to support our crime initiatives and stuff and I believe that that same criticism has been levelled at many of us in the region. It is my hope that through CariSECURE and other similar initiatives, that policy makers like myself would be better able to ensure that whatever strategies that we implement are based on data of scientific approach and are therefore more effective.”