SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS JUSTICE REFORMS IN THE GLOBAL SPOTLIGHT AT UN CRIME CONGRESS

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, September 28, 2026 (SKNIS): Saint Kitts and Nevis took its place among leading justice ministers on the world stage on Sunday. The United Nations invited the Federation to share its criminal justice reforms at the Fifteenth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Abu Dhabi.

The Attorney General and Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs, the Honourable Garth Wilkin, addressed a High-Level Thematic Meeting on “Advancing Access to Justice for Effective and Fair Criminal Justice Systems.” He shared the panel with the Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Monica Juma, and with ministers and senior officials from the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Canada, the United Kingdom, Kenya and Romania.

In extending the invitation, UNODC highlighted the Federation’s role in advancing equal access to justice. It pointed to the country’s sustained commitment to policing that is people-centred, evidence-based, professional, inclusive and accountable, and to joint initiatives planned with the UN agency.

The Federation brought strong results to the discussion. Homicides fell by 75 percent in 2025 compared with 2024, reaching the lowest levels in more than two decades.

Speaking by video, Attorney General Wilkin said the reforms rest on a change in approach. “Rather than only how we bring people into the justice system more efficiently, we increasingly ask, what is the appropriate justice pathway for this person, this harm and this community?”

That thinking has produced a Diversionary Caution framework. More than one hundred police, prosecutors, judicial officers and social sector personnel have been trained to apply it in partnership with UNODC. It has also produced a Restorative Justice framework, with pathways from the police, the prosecution, the courts and the community. The Attorney General also described the upcoming Community Justice Cup, which will use youth football to teach conflict resolution and restorative values.

He told the gathering that the Federation’s size is an advantage. “Small States can therefore be not merely beneficiaries of justice reform, but important contributors to its development.”

Looking ahead, the Attorney General named correctional reform as the next frontier. He called for international partnership to help Small Island Developing States build modern, rehabilitation-focused correctional systems. “If we invest in fair trials and effective prosecution but not in what happens during and after incarceration, the justice continuum remains unfinished,” he said.

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