Strategic Alliances critical to the fight against drugs in CARIFORUM
A Workshop to strengthen the Dominican Republic’s Drug Treatment Court opened today at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Santo Domingo.
The need for a human rights approach in drug prevention strategies, and the critical importance of national and international cooperation and strategic alliances in the fight against drugs were two themes of remarks at the brief opening ceremony. The remarks were delivered by General (Rtd) Rafael Guerrero Peralta, President of the National Council For Drugs, Ms. Beverly Reynolds, Coordinator of the Human and Development Programme, CARICOM Secretariat, Ambassador Gianluca Grippa, Head of European Delegation in the Dominican Republic, Architect Jaime Felipe, Deputy Director of the DIGICOM, and Judge Alberto Amiot Rodriguez, President of the Second Justice of Garantia de Santiago de Chile.
The capacity-building initiative is part of the response under the Drug Demand Reduction (DDR) component of the Tenth European Development Fund (EDF) Crime and Security Programme between the European Union and the Caribbean Forum (CARIFORUM) of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States.
The DDR component seeks to strengthen institutional capacity of national and regional drug demand reduction entities and practitioners to effectively develop strategies and implement policies and programmes in CARIFORUM.
The use of illicit drugs continues to rise in CARIFORUM countries and strengthening institutional capacity has been identified as one of the strategic responses to address this issue.
The CARICOM Secretariat has collaborated with the Government of the Dominican Republic and the Executive Secretariat of the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) of the Organisation of American States (OAS) to strengthen Dominica’s existing Drug Treatment Court Initiative and to expand its operations to include juveniles and adolescence.
CARIFORUM is the body that comprises Caribbean ACP States that promotes and coordinates policy dialogue, cooperation and regional integration, mainly within the framework of the Cotonou Agreement between the ACP and the European Union.
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