(E-079/01)
April 6, 2001BARBADOS SIGNS OAS ANTI-CORRUPTION AND FIREARMS TREATIES
Reaffirming its commitment to hemispheric strategies against corruption and gun-running, Barbados today signed the treaties adopted by the Organization of American States to combat those scourges.
"Barbados continues to take concrete steps to enhance its laws to counter the damaging effects and threats posed to its economic prosperity and, stability and security by corruption and the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms," Ambassador Michael King asserted as he signed the Inter-American Convention against Corruption and the Inter-American Convention against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives and Other Related Materials.
After signing the documents with OAS Assistant Secretary General Luigi Einaudi, the Barbadian envoy explained that his country's "main objective now is to translate the provisions of these conventions into reality at the domestic and regional levels."
Elaborating, he argued that as Barbados viewed it, "through our united, coordinated and sustained efforts, and with the necessary political will, the battle against corruption and the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms… can be won despite the limited resources which are available to deal with these problems."
He touched on the harmful effects of corruption and arms trafficking on the security of the region and cited the two treaties he signed as a first step towards effectively responding to the scourges in a coordinated fashion.
The OAS Assistant Secretary General lauded the move by Barbados, adding: "Both of these conventions… demonstrate areas of leadership in the inter-American system and at the world level. They also illustrate the ability of our governments to carry out, multilaterally, objectives that are of enormous importance to the overall community and which could be more difficult to attain in a purely bilateral setting."
Today's act makes Barbados the 27th country to sign the anti-corruption treaty, which has been ratified so far by 22 OAS member states. It entered into force in March 1997. The firearms convention entered into force in July 1998. All 34 states have now signed, and 11 have ratified the Convention.
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