QUITO, Ecuador — Barbados’ Senior Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Billie Miller has deposited with the Organization of American States the instruments whereby her government ratified the Inter-American Convention against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives and Other Related Materials.

The ratification documents were deposited on Tuesday, against the backdrop of the 34th regular session of the OAS General Assembly, which opened Sunday evening.

In depositing the instruments of ratification, Dame Billie reiterated how the government of Barbados has “pointed out that the country has consistently been proactive in the international community with regard to the fight against terrorism, drug trafficking and other security-related threats.” She went on to state that “the ratification of this Convention is a further demonstration of our commitment to the hemispheric fight against arms trafficking.”

The Barbadian Foreign Minister said her nation joins twenty-two other states of the hemisphere “in ratifying the convention which commits states parties to coordination and cooperation efforts in the hemispheric fight against arms trafficking.”

Adopted in Washington, D.C., in November 1997, the OAS treaty against illegal firearms entered into force in July 1998.

Reference: GA-014-04