Crime and security issues to be discussed in Dominican Republic

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Oct 20, CMC – A two-day workshop on strengthening drug treatment courts will take place in the Dominican Republic from Monday, according to the Caribbean Forum (CARIFORUM) Secretariat.
It said that the Guyana-based Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat has collaborated with the Dominican Republic government and the executive secretariat of the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) of the Organization of American States (OAS) to strengthen the Spanish country’s existing Drug Treatment Court Initiative and to expand its operations to include juveniles and adolescence.
The training is part of the response under the Drug Demand Reduction (DDR) component of the 10th European Development Fund (EDF) Crime and Security Programme between the European Union and CARIFORUM.
The DDR component seeks to strengthen institutional capacity of national and regional drug demand reduction entities and practitioners to effectively develop strategies and implement policies and programmes in CARIFORUM. The use of illicit drugs continues to rise in CARIFORUM countries and a lack of institutional capacity has been identified as one of the challenges in the response against this issue.
The two-day event will examine, among other issues, therapeutic justice programme as an alternative to incarceration, comprehensive protection of the rights of children and adolescents: principles and rights and identification of the needs to generate a specialised model in the adolescent population.
The opening will be addressed by representatives of the Dominican Republic government, the CARICOM Secretariat, CICAD and the EU.