(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) CARICOM Secretary-General, His Excellency Edwin Carrington told youth leaders at a regional Youth Forum in Suriname that the process of free movement within, the CARICOM Single Market and Economy - the Community’s flag ship programme - is being gravely hampered by the Immigration Restriction Acts within Member States.

Mr. Carrington said that Member States will need to re-orient their thinking to frame legislation that facilitated hassle free movement within the Community. This he said would facilitate further interaction of the youth across the Region.

Noting how impressed he was with the way young people articulated their issues Secretary-General Carrington told the Forum that they were definitely “on the right course.”

However he pointed to two issues that should be considered seriously: gun and gang violence as well as climate change and development.

“We have to find a way to separate man from guns,” he lamented. “That combination is wreaking too much havoc on our Community.”

With regard to climate change, he told the youth not to underestimate its effects especially in the wake of Haiti’s devastation from an earthquake on January 12, measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale. He further challenged young people to be strong advocates of the preservation of the environment to further mitigate the effects of climate change.

Pointing to an impending follow-up meeting of world leaders in Mexico to address outcomes of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, in December 2009, Secretary-General Carrington said that he would advocate regional governments to include in their contingent to that meeting, at least one youth leader.

The Regional Youth Forum heralded the start of a series of youth related meetings leading up to the two-day CARICOM Heads of Government Summit on Youth Development, which opens on Friday, under the theme: YOUTH NOW for the Community Tomorrow. On Thursday, a special Meeting of the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) was held at the Torarica Hotel to frame policy priority actions based on the findings of the Report.

CONTACT: piu@caricom.org