(Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados has made an urgent call for the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to confront two mounting threats to the Region’s existence, the spread of fake news and the persistent challenge of citizen insecurity.

In her address as Outgoing Chair of CARICOM at the opening of the 49th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government in Montego Bay on July 6, Prime Minister Mottley warned that the proliferation of disinformation, fueled by the misuse of artificial intelligence, poses a serious risk to the Region’s democracy.

“The improper use of AI can sometimes stoke great fear and panic among our citizens,” she said, citing recent examples in which Barbados was the target of fake news.

“It is almost as if this is a daily exercise now for our countries,” she stated, urging CARICOM to establish its own mechanism to verify information in the absence of action from global tech platforms.
“We need our own CARICOM blue tick to validate truth in this Community,” she said.

Historic gathering

A meeting between Heads of Government and Heads of Judiciary of CARICOM preceded the opening of the Conference. Lauding this gathering as historic, Prime Minister Mottley stated that “it is possible for the judiciary to remain independent but not isolated from the communities in which they operate,” echoing the sentiments of Jamaica’s Chief Justice.

This idea, she added, is critical not only for the development of Caribbean jurisprudence but also for stability in our democracies and for addressing the shared burden of citizen insecurity.

Prime Minister Mottley said that the Region pays a high price for the United States’ Second Amendment rights, and lauded Jamaica’s proposal for a regional justice and security cooperation framework that aligns with the Needham’s Point and George Bridge Declarations.

Underscoring the importance of regional action on citizen security, she said, “We have a duty to our citizens.”

The Outgoing Chair also paid tribute to newly installed President of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), Justice Winston Anderson.