Fourteen Caribbean countries were present at the conference, namely: Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. There was also participation from several organizations, such as, the Caribbean Community Secretariat (CARICOM), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the University of the West Indies (UWI) and two experts from Canada. The list of participants of the conference is attached to this report as Annex III.

The conference provided a forum to review the investments made by the CIDA Gender Equality Programme (CGEP) to eradicate gender-based violence in the Caribbean over the past five years. The objectives of the conference were two-fold: firstly to review the justice system responses to gender-based violence with specific focus on police training and supporting social services and, secondly to develop an integrated plan of action to gender-based violence with particular attention to the justice system. Participants were expected to focus on rethinking the issues involved in violence against women and on charting institutional policy responses, guided by international standards on gender-based violence and human rights.