BY ISMAIL AKWEI From Face2Face Africa

Red House: Government office in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
The Caribbean islands are mostly in the news for violence and crime, however, those reports cannot mean the countries do not have peace at all.

The level of peace in the Caribbean was quantified by the Institute for Economics and Peace in its 2018 Global Peace Index (GPI) released in June.

It uses 23 indicators and measures the state of peace using three thematic domains: the level of Societal Safety and Security; the extent of Ongoing Domestic and International Conflict; and the degree of Militarisation.

The 2018 GPI found that the global level of peace has deteriorated for the fourth successive year as only 71 countries improved out of 163 countries.

Iceland maintained its top spot since 2008 as the most peaceful country in the world followed by New Zealand, Austria, Portugal and Denmark respectively. At the bottom is Syria which maintained its least peaceful country in the world status since 2013. It is followed by Afghanistan, South Sudan, Iraq and Somalia respectively.

Meanwhile, only five Caribbean countries were featured in the list under Central America & The Caribbean region. They all made it in the top 100 peaceful countries.

Cuba

Cuba is ranked as the most peaceful country in the Caribbean with an overall rank of 81. It improved last year despite the region’s worst scores in the index for homicide rate, violent crime, and perceptions of criminality in the last eight years.

Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago came second in the Caribbean with an overall rank of 84. The twin-island managed to improve their violent crime scores last year with a deep fall in crime rates.

Haiti

Haiti trailed Trinidad and Tobago as the third peaceful country in the country with an overall rank of 88 which was a bit lower than its performance last year. It only improved on its violent crime scores which earned the country the top spot in the region.

Jamaica

The island was the fourth-ranked peaceful country in the Caribbean with an overall rank of 90. One problem highlighted in Jamaica was predatory street gangs that have managed to corrupt the forces of law and order and the body politic which deeply entrenched the threats to peace.
Dominican Republic

This is the fifth and last country in the Caribbean to be ranked in Central America & The Caribbean region. It scored an overall rank of 91. Like all the countries in the region, none was able to improve its score on perceptions of criminality over the past 10 years despite improvement in the regional scores on both internal and external conflicts fought.

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