On October 20, at the Third Committe of the General...

On October 20, at the Third Committe of the General Assembly under item 107 on crime prevention and criminal justice, speaking on behalf of the member States of the Caribbean Community - Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago - with regard to the administration of justice, Ambassador Patrick A. Lewis said there was growing concern in the CARICOM States concerning seeming attempts to erode the individual legislative principles calling for the administration of capital punishment by the European Union in response to certain crimes. "The abolition of the death penalty would bring grievous suffering to the relatives and friends of the victim or victims, and would impact negatively upon society," Ambassador Lewis said. "The CARICOM Governments took seriously their obligations in administering justice. They could not afford the wanton exercise of criminal activity capable of disrupting the stability of societies." They appealed to the European Union to withdraw its resolution which impinged on the sovereign right of any country to determine the laws by which it will be governed.