Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders have adopted a regional counter-terrorism strategy at their inter-sessional summit that ended on Tuesday.
The leaders also agreed that the member countries would table in their respective parliaments the legislation by July 4 this year to support the strategy and that an effective monitoring and evaluation process should be put in place to determine the region’s success in addressing this critical matter.
The strategy was developed by the Trinidad-based Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS) which, in consultation with its stakeholders and regional and international partners, will review the document biennially to consider updating it to respond to the evolving terrorism landscape.
The summit also agreed that all member states should enact legislation related to the Advance Cargo Information System (ACIS) and Advanced Passenger Information System (APIS) to assist counter-terrorism efforts, among other security matters, and to share information on crime and violence among themselves in a more consistent manner.
Crime and security was among the main agenda items during the two-day summit and the leaders agreed that IMPACS will create an intra-regional task force comprising experts, to examine and suggest innovative regional solutions to combat the issue regionally.
Source: Jamaica Observer
