Mr. President,
Senators will recall that in this Honourable Chamber a few weeks ago, I made a statement on developments concerning the implementation of the Shiprider Agreement.
The Statement was made in light of public interest arising from the case of the Lady Lawla, which was intercepted pursuant to that Agreement.
By way of reminder, I informed this Chamber that the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade and National Security, the Attorney-General and the Director of Public Prosecution, supported by an inter Ministerial technical team, convened a meeting with senior US officials on 6th January 2021 to further review the operational procedures associated with implementation of the Agreement.
Mr. President,
I can inform this Chamber that progress has been achieved and the work towards finalising those protocols is far advanced.
Further to the meeting, the Government of Jamaica transmitted draft revised proposals to our US counterparts, in response to which we received the reply of the US Government accepting many of our proposals and sharing counter-proposals. Having received the comments of the US Government, the Jamaican stakeholders further met and considered the counter proposals in detail and earlier this week, we transmitted the response of the
Jamaican Government.
With this latest round of exchanges now concluded, both sides have found agreement on the majority of the proposed protocols. A meeting is now being scheduled between the parties to iron out the handful of issues where there still remains a difference of opinion.
The timely responses and the constructive engagement have maintained the spirit of cooperation between the parties and have provided some optimism that we will finalize these protocols within a reasonably short period of time.
Mr. President,
These operational protocols are, at their core, aimed at improving the flow of information between parties at critical stages in the process. The ultimate aim of these protocols is to put the Government of Jamaica in the best position possible to do two main things. On the one hand, to further enable us to take strong and effective action to put a serious dent in the illicit uses of our maritime areas and on the other hand, to improve our ability to protect the interests of our citizens who may be intercepted at sea pursuant to the Shiprider Agreement. This Government is committed to achieving both goals.
The reality is Mr. President, that our vast maritime area, which is almost 25 times that of our land mass, is exploited by criminal elements for trafficking in guns and drugs.
Cooperation with our international partners is therefore not only important, it is necessary if we want to achieve any meaningful and sustainable reduction in serious crime in Jamaica.
The 2019 case concerning the Jossette and the more recent incident involving the Lady Lawla and her crew, have highlighted the need for continued review and refinement of the systems established to give effect to the Agreement. I, therefore, wish to reiterate the Government of Jamaica’s commitment to securing the improvements needed to make the Agreement the effective crime fighting tool it was intended to be, while ensuring the rights of our citizens are protected. We, therefore, will continue to find ways to create new and better systems and making the existing ones as efficient as possible within the applicable legal framework.