by Bennette Roach
Security is a developmental issue. (social, economic and cultural)
Centre: Michelle Gyles-McDonnough, Representative for Barbados and Eastern Caribbean
Left: Professor of Political Sociology at University of the University of West Indies, Mr. Anthony Harriott.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) brought together CARICOM media personnel, journalists and national broadcasters together at a three-day workshop held at the United Nations Barbados headquarters, Marine Gardens, Christ Church.
In her brief opening remarks at the launch of the 2012 Human Development and Citizen Security Training Workshop for Caribbean Media, the Resident Representative for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Michelle Gyles-McDonnough, told participants that ‘Citizen Security is a developmental issue.’
The three-day workshop intended and sought to sensitise media persons from across the region on the issues of crime, citizen security and its interaction with human development outlined in the Caribbean Human Development Report (CHDR) 2012.
Participants
Gyles-McDonnough, in her remarks, opined that there was a need for greater emphasis on the developmental aspect of crime and violence in the region. She stated, “It is important to understand that there were needs for a critical application of human development thinking to an important challenge like security. That is, the first objective in terms of saying that security and building the understanding that security is not just a law enforcement issue but a development issue and why is it a development issue.”
Indeed, Heraldo Munoz, Asst. Secretary-General of the United Nations, in the Foreword to the Summary of the CHDR 2012, title Human Development and the Shift to Better Citizen Security, wrote: “The increase in violence and crime in Latin America and the Caribbean is an undeniable fact that erodes the very foundation of the democratic processes in the region and imposes high social, economic and cultural costs.”
He noted, as would be noted in the report, that the situation “varied much among and within countries,” adding that, “there are high and low crime countries in the region, and differences exist even within each of the sub-regions.” Munoz continues that however perceived insecurity and citizens’ concern are independent of actual crime rates, so that mano dura policies are not exclusive of high-crime countries.
But then he noted that the region was still confronted with a paradox. He asks “Why is it that, despite the democratization process experienced in the region in the last 20 years, citizen security levels, as well as the justice and security institutions in the region, are in crisis?”
The Report was built around crime statistics and analysis from seven sub-region countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. The workshop was very interactive as may be expected from some senior and youthful experienced media personnel. They questioned, why not all the territories or why only those territories, which might cause a result of some distortion.
