The Firearms Trafficking Section (FTS) of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) organized a hybrid legislative workshop to present and discuss the UNODC FTS’s comprehensive assessment of the domestic legislation in Trinidad and Tobago on 29-30 June 2022. The scope of the legislative report encompassed a detailed analysis into the current firearms legislation, policies and institutional frameworks in light of regional and international agreements such as the Firearms Protocol, Arms Trade Treaty, the Palermo Convention, among others. The workshop is aligned with a German funded project to support the crime prevention and criminal justice component of the Caribbean Firearms Roadmap to counter illicit firearms trafficking and misuse across the region.
The discourse involved various representatives from the Office of the Attorney General, Ministry of National Security, Customs and Excise Division, Judiciary, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and other agencies, including civil service organizations and academic institutions. The discussion centered around the main findings of the legislative assessment to develop a way forward based on the identified gaps and recommendations and support Trinidad and Tobago in their endeavors to reinforce their domestic firearms legislation.
Participants approached the workshop with alacrity and were willing to share and learn from their counterparts as well as the UNODC. They indicated the need for further collaboration across agencies and signaled their interest in future meetings with the Firearms Trafficking Section to refine their national legislation in its alignment with regional and international instruments to combat the illicit firearms criminality. The meeting aided the identification of loopholes and areas of improvement on the national level. The participants appreciated the recommendations detailed in the assessment and are looking forward to engaging with UNODC for the law reform process.
