“The CARICOM Secretariat sees [the CARPHA Strategic Plan 2025–2030] as an opportunity to strengthen structured collaboration between the Secretariat, CARPHA and other regional entities, and a road map to guide how Member States align their priorities and collaborate on critical regional imperatives.
“I am on record as saying that we need to launch a war on gangs of a similar magnitude and nature to the war on terror.”
Thank you, colleagues.
Let me acknowledge Senator Janice Allen, representing the Leader of the Opposition,
Dr. Carla Barnett, CARICOM Secretary-General,
Chief Ministers and Ministers of Government,
Members of the Judiciary,
Effective today, 1 July 2025, Dr The Most Honourable Andrew Holness, ON, PC, MP, Prime Minister of Jamaica, has formally assumed the Chairmanship of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
As we prepare for the 49th Regular Meeting of the Conference of CARICOM Heads of Government, Prime Minister Holness has shared a message outlining his vision and priorities for the Community.
"Reparations for Haiti continue to be central to CARICOM’s reparations claim. April 2025 marks the bicentenary of the indemnity of 150 million Francs imposed on Haiti by France as reparations for loss of property, including enslaved Africans, and as a precondition for recognising the island’s independence. The negative economic and social effects of this historical injustice are painfully clear, with arguable links to the situation in Haiti today.
"Sometimes we focus on the challenges, but our conversation today was more about the opportunities for meaningful engagement with young people. We spoke about mental health and well-being and the experience of CARICOM with the strong leadership of our young people to find solutions." - Dr Felipe Paullier, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Youth Affairs
CARICOM Heads of Government continue to be actively concerned about the implications of crime and violence on the social development of the Region. To date, two symposiums on Crime and Violence as a Public Health Issue have been convened, keeping at the forefront of the deliberations the importance of balancing the rights of the individual and the public safety interests of the whole of society.
“The Regional Nursing Body discussed a number of policies and tools aimed at significantly improving the level of care provided by nurses in the Region. The body continued the work towards completing the revision of the Caribbean Standards for Nursing and Midwifery Education and Practice to ensure that these standards were harmonised throughout the Region and remained consistent with international policies and guidelines.
“We must take a very strong approach to it from a legislative perspective to create the laws that will enable us to have surveillance to detain them - of course, within the accepted rules of human rights and the treatment of citizens - but certainly, there needs to be what we call in Jamaica enhanced measures to treat with this new and emerging threat to our democracy.”
“We also expect that these acts – using the tools of trade of the criminals at large in our communities from The Bahamas to Suriname, Saint Lucia to Trinidad and Tobago – that they be deemed to be acts of terrorism and allow us to view them, not only the executive, but by our judiciary and allow us to fashion the appropriate legislation."