Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Kamina Johnson Smith has stated that Prime Minister Andrew Holness has called on global leaders to provide the necessary financial and logistical support to transition to a more effective and hybrid mechanism for restoring peace and constitutional order in Haiti.

She also emphasised that the prime minister called on the international community to mount a global war on gangs to disrupt the flow of weapons, money and influence that fuel transnational organised crime.

“The prime minister urged the international community to ensure that we’re working together to manifest an international system that is fair, that is inclusive, and that is responsive,” she said, while detailing some of the agendas the prime minister focused on at the UN, during her address at the post-Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Johnson Smith revealed that a major focus for the team during UN Week was to ensure that the international community joined forces to support Haiti. “…Yesterday, there was a breakthrough in the Security Council and it passed a new resolution to create a successor mission to the multi-country security support mission that is currently in Haiti. That mission actually expires tomorrow.

“So it was absolutely critical that a vote be taken and that we have an agreed way forward that would not leave not only Haiti at odds as to what next for us and is the international community leaving us behind, but it’s also for the forces that are there to ensure that there is a next chapter, a next phase that is UN-backed, and that will have resources in order to ensure that we do our very best,” she continued.

She said Jamaica has been stating within CARICOM and externally its concerns about Haiti and its people. “[This includes] chronic humanitarian crisis and the security crisis that has, of course, spiralled into mass dislocation, gross humanitarian abuses and really a situation that cannot be allowed to be forgotten just because the media prefers to highlight other areas. It must be that from solidarity and also proximity and Jamaica’s concern for regional security and our own national security interests that we do our best by our brothers and sisters in Haiti,” Johnson Smith said.

The foreign minister highlights that Jamaica has been advocating for a new successor mechanism, as well as the establishment of a new UN mission office in Haiti, which will allow for more predictable funding and more systematic support of the mission that is deployed there.

“It means that now there is more discussion to take place and more planning. We’re already in discussions. Jamaica has agreed to be one of the member countries of the Group of Standing Partners that will be a part of the planning and the standing up of the new gang suppression force, as well as the monitoring and engagement as between that force and the Security Council.

“We very much have affirmed the need to ensure sustainable, predictable resourcing of the force by all international partners. We take note as well that this mission is intended to work in parallel with the OAS roadmap for Haiti’s return to stability and security, which focuses more on the humanitarian aspects,” she added.