Antigua: Representatives from Caribbean governments and civil society organizations called for the United Nations to begin negotiations of an Arms Trade Treaty after a two-day summit in Antigua last week.

Discussions at the two-day conference (Oct. 2-3) focused on the social and economic impacts that armed violence was having on the region, the challenges to community safety, marginalization of communities, and the loss of young males in urban communities to gun violence.

The Arms Trade Treaty, which would prohibit arms transfers that fuel conflict, poverty and serious human rights abuses, is currently under discussion at the United Nations. States are set to discuss the next stage of the process during October.

Representatives from Guyana, St. Lucia, Haiti, Trinidad, Grenada, Switzerland, UK, St. Kitts, Jamaica, and Antigua and Barbuda attended the conference.

The conference was hosted by Antigua’s Civil Organisation Promoting Peace in Youth (COPPY), the Women’s Institute for Alternative Development (WINAD) of Trinidad and Tobago, the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA), and Oxfam.

WINAD and IANSA are partners of The Advocacy Project (AP).

For more information, see news coverage of the summit.

Read the regional statement from the conference.