With the United Nation's Arms Treaty officially taking effect on Christmas Eve this year, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said that was another arsenal in the fight against crime for T&T.The PM said so while fielding questions from members of the local media after delivering the feature address of the T&T Investment Conference at Pratt House, Manhattan.At the United Nation's Headquarters, New York, yesterday eight countries, including St Lucia and Bahamas, confirmed ratification of the treaty, bringing the number of countries to have ratified to 53. The UN needed 50 ratifications to trigger the treaty's entry into force.
So far 119 states have signed the treaty and it has been described by Persad-Bissessar as a historic landmark."This means for Trinidad and Tobago greater regulation and control and therefore better monitoring with respect to arms and ammunition and this is something we are very happy for to help us in the fight against crime," Persad-Bissessar said.She added that from day one T&T and other countries had been advocating that initiative, especially regrading the monitoring of small arms."We do not make arms but the weapons of mass destruction are not the ones that are killing our people and that's why I was very keen on this arms trade treaty."That within it should be provided matters dealing with small arms. Before you talked about the huge missiles but what has been killing us and here in the Caribbean are small arms. That was included and we look forward to the implementation of this particular treaty," Persad-Bissessar said.
Apart from T&T, Austria and Switzerland are also seeking to have the treaty's secretariat be established in their countries.Saying T&T has been on a vigorous campaign to make this a reality the PM added:"Our lobby has been that most of these headquarters for secretariats have tended to be in the north and there must be some kind of geographic balancing."We look forward to get the support of many of the nations of the United Nation's family for the secretariat to be house in T&T," Persad-Bissessar added.Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Dookeran, who was present at the UN's headquarters yesterday, said with the treaty soon coming into effect it would pave the way for making smaller states like T&T safer.
Dookeran, who said he had several meetings in New York this week, praised T&T's efforts in supporting the treaty.He added: "Trinidad and Tobago has been the lead negotiator in this venture over the last two years for the Caricom region. We have worked closely with a number of other global partners... first to have the treaty passed in the United Nation's General Assembly and now today (yesterday) in this landmark event of having been ratified by over 50 countries." He said it was a "success story" for diplomacy in the world and for the UN in ensuring that the treaty would make the world a safer place by controlling and regulating the illegal flow of arms and ammunition.He said the first conference of states parties would be organised and the forum would review the operation and implementation of the treaty.
The threshold of 50 ratifications was reached yesterday at a joint ceremony as part of the 2014 treaty event. Eight states–Argentina, Bahamas, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Saint Lucia, Senegal and Uruguay–deposited their instruments of ratification yesterday, while Georgia and Namibia signed the treaty. Adopted by the assembly in April 2013, the treaty will enter into force 90 days after the date of the deposit of the 50th instrument of ratification.