Workshop on International Cooperation and National Implementation in Jamaica

The Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO PrepCom) organized a workshop on CTBTO International Cooperation and National Implementation of the Treaty for the Caribbean States in St. Ann, Jamaica, from 3 to 5 December 2002. Some twenty-eight participants from fifteen States, including three non-signatory States (the Bahamas, Cuba and Trinidad and Tobago), and representatives of the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (OPANAL), the United Nations Department for Disarmament Affairs and the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) attended the workshop. Speakers from outside the region, Canada and Japan, made valuable contributions to the workshop deliberations by presenting some available schemes of cooperation under the Treaty. The workshop focused on an overview of the work of the Commission in building-up the verification system, CTBT verification technologies and the potential benefits of their applications for civil and scientific purposes, as well as national implementation of the Treaty in the region. Convened as a follow-up to the initiatives presented during the Regional Workshop for CTBTO International Cooperation, held in Lima, Peru from 29 November to 1 December 2000, the Jamaica Workshop examined ways and means to promote regional cooperation under the CTBT verification regime, including national implementation of the Treaty. The workshop also facilitated exchanges aimed at enhancing the signature and ratification of the Treaty in the Caribbean, as well as supporting timely build-up of the verification regime.