Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Surujrattan Rambachan says T&T is being encouraged by the United Nations to conclude a legally binding agreement to regulate the gun trade. Rambachan yesterday spoke about the regulations while addressing the United Nations Association of T&T (UNATT) which held its annual general meeting at The Normandie, St Ann's. Rambachan said T&T also called for a strong and effective implementation regime to ensure compliance with the provision of the treaty. 'We are all for an arms trade treaty," Rambachan said.
Rambachan told UNATT they should be joining this kind of debate to promote their work on an international forum. "So small arms is our problem. Those are our weapons of mass destruction." In 1989, Rambachan recalled that then prime minister ANR Robinson took the initiative to introduce on the agenda of the United Nations General Assembly the need for a permanent international criminal court. "The court has been established but his calls for international drug trafficking to be included as a crime in the jurisdiction of the ICC has not been realised."
Rambachan said this matter was raised by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar at the recently concluded UN General Assembly in New York.
"This is a big problem for many countries. "And they all endorsed the fact that international drug trafficking should be included as a crime within the jurisdiction of the ICC."