What It Is
The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is a regional organization of 15 Caribbean states and dependencies, with a single market, shared institutions, and coordinated . Founded by the 1973 Treaty of Chaguaramas (revised 2001), CARICOM is the principal Caribbean integration body and has been operating for over five decades.
Members include all major English-speaking Caribbean states plus Suriname and Haiti; associate members include British overseas territories (the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Turks and Caicos, Bermuda, etc.). The full membership covers most of the Caribbean Basin's independent states.
The Single Market and Economy
The CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) provides free movement of skilled workers, capital, and goods. The CSME has been implemented in stages over the 2000s and 2010s, with varying degrees of completion across member states.
The CSME provisions include:
- Free movement of goods: most barriers eliminated for goods originating in CARICOM members.
- Free movement of skilled workers: in defined categories (professionals, artists, sportspeople, media workers, others).
- Free movement of capital: progressive liberalization.
- Right of establishment: businesses can establish in other CARICOM states.
- Right to provide services: cross-border services provision.
Implementation has been uneven. Some categories of skilled-worker mobility work effectively; others have administrative barriers. Free movement of goods works in many sectors but encounters non- barriers.
The CARICOM Court of Justice
The CARICOM Court of Justice (CCJ) has both an original jurisdiction (, including CSME provisions) and an appellate jurisdiction (replacing the UK Privy Council for final appeals) — though several members retain Privy Council appeals for historical and political reasons.
Member states that have moved fully to CCJ appellate jurisdiction include Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Guyana, and a few others. Most CARICOM members still retain Privy Council appeals.
The CCJ has produced substantive jurisprudence on free-movement rights and on common-law matters from member states that recognize its appellate jurisdiction.
Climate Diplomacy
CARICOM has been an active voice in climate diplomacy, primarily through:
- The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS): many CARICOM members are AOSIS members and the coordinates Caribbean voices in climate negotiations.
- The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre: a regional institution headquartered in Belize.
- High Ambition Coalition participation: CARICOM states have consistently pushed for ambitious climate action and for to address .
The small-island-developing-state (SIDS) framing has been central to CARICOM's climate engagement.
Reparations Initiative
CARICOM has pursued reparations for slavery and colonialism through the CARICOM Reparations Commission's Ten-Point Plan. The plan calls for:
- Formal apology from former colonial powers.
- Repatriation support.
- Indigenous development program.
- Cultural institutions.
- Public health crisis recognition.
- Illiteracy eradication.
- African knowledge program.
- Psychological rehabilitation.
- Technology transfer.
- Debt cancellation.
The reparations has produced sustained diplomatic engagement with the UK, France, the Netherlands, and Spain. The 2024 King Charles visit to several Commonwealth states included reparations discussion as a recurring theme.
Haiti Crisis Engagement
Haiti's crisis since 2021 has dominated recent CARICOM agendas, with the organization mediating political transitions and supporting humanitarian response. CARICOM's engagement has included:
- Eminent Persons Group: senior CARICOM diplomats mediating Haitian political negotiations.
- Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission: while not a CARICOM mission per se, CARICOM has supported the Kenya-led MSS to address gang violence.
- for transitional arrangements.
- Humanitarian response coordination.
The Haiti crisis has shown both CARICOM's substantive engagement and its limited capacity to actually resolve the crisis without broader international support.
Common Misconceptions
CARICOM is sometimes confused with the OECS (Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States), a smaller sub-regional grouping of seven Eastern Caribbean states. The OECS is a CARICOM sub-set with deeper economic integration.
Another misconception is that CARICOM is purely English-speaking. Suriname is Dutch-speaking; Haiti is French- and Creole-speaking; the membership is more linguistically diverse than commonly assumed.
Real-World Examples
The 2024 CARICOM-mediated Haitian political transition brought together Haitian factions to establish a transitional council. The CARICOM reparations engagement with European former colonial powers has been one of the most sustained reparations diplomatic campaigns in modern history. The CARICOM Single Market's free-movement provisions have created opportunities for Caribbean professionals to work across member states despite implementation gaps.
Example
CARICOM mediated the March 2024 transition agreement in Haiti following Prime Minister Henry's resignation — facilitating creation of a transitional council to lead the country to elections.