Today is a very significant day in the global and national calendar - a day set aside by the United Nations to observe and celebrate the blessing of children – the joy, hope and inspiration they bring to out lives, families, communities, societies, countries and world.Sadly though, it has been, since its official inception in 1954, a day of consistent reflection on the plight of children not just nationally, but globally.
I regret to say that today, it’s no different as I reflect on the reality of children’s rights and child abuse in our beloved Trinidad and Tobago.
I must confess that children, their rights and their welfare and betterment are special topics to me since, as a gynaecologist for over 35 years, I’ve spent my life delivering babies and bringing them into this world.
It therefore bleeds my heart to point out that the sad reality in T&T is that children are not treated in the manner the Constitution and the UN Convention for the Rights of the Child has guaranteed - with love, respect and proper care.
In T&T, child abuse and neglect is prevalent and more and more, the Government is ignoring this horrific ill to the true detriment of our society.
Children, of all ages, genders, social brackets, are the majority victims of crimes, violence, sexual abuse, physical abuse and neglect.
Cases of incest and domestic abuse among children have risen according to statistics from the Rape Crisis Society in 2008, which showed there were 62 cases of sexual molestation involving children under the age of 15 that year.
The previous year there were 49 that were looked after by the Society. Other recent UNICEF and UN reports show that child labour and even enslavement along with verbal and physical abuse, as well as neglect, prevails in a major way.
This country will never forget the horrific ills perpetrated against Sean Luke, Amy Annanmuntodo and this year, Tecia Henry, to name but a few.
Children continue to fall ill from a variety of diseases and ailments but are faced with improper care at the nation’s hospitals.
They continue to be victims of family life breakdown and crime-more and more young people are falling into lives of violence and crime because they are viewed or view themselves social outcasts.
Teenage pregnancies are on the rise with no one to guide and counsel these children, and many times, their lives are cut short by unsafe abortions and a lack of proper family planning.
Children are being denied their rights to a basic education.
They are being forced into early employment-against the labour laws of the country-to escape a life of poverty.
Children in their hundreds live in the streets, are victims of prostitution and possibly human trafficking.
Children are the most prevalent victims of cybercrimes.
Young people tend to be the main victims of HIV/Aids.
The gang killings are mainly children-both the agressors and victims. This country has become, in short, in many ways, a virtual horror house for children.
And the question remains-what is the Government doing to protect the children of this country and ensure that their basic rights to protection, safety, education, emotional and healthy well being and proper care is preserved. Nothing.
Legislation to promote the welfare of children are not being brought to the Parliament and those already passed are either not proclaimed nor properly implemented, like the Children’s Authority.
Education policies and general information campaigns to educate children about their rights are not overtly put in place by this Government, despite the hundreds of billions it spends on useless wasteful PR for State companies like Udecott yearly.
NGOs and orphanages that seek out the welfare of children are not properly funded by the Government while the State rehabilitation projects of young offenders are virtually non existent.
I wish to state that the best service to the child is the service closest to the child, and children who are victims of neglect, abuse, or abandonment must not also be victims of bureaucracy and Government incompetence or indifference.
Children deserve our devoted attention, not our divided attention.
The fact remains that while child abuse does not go away, 90 per cent of child abuse is preventable.
Child abuse and neglect offend the basic values of our State.
We have a responsibility to provide safe settings for at-risk children and facilitate permanent remedies and rehabilitation for children who have already suffered the tragedy and misfortune of neglect or abuse.
And the fact remains that the only reason why child abuse is alive today, is because we as adults fail our children when we fail to listen to them.
Listen to a child today, I urge you.
Hear his/her pleas, suggestions and realize that he/she has rights just like you and me.
On that note, I wish to inform all that we in the UNC intend to do our part for the children of our society and nation.
We intend to demand that the Government implement various policies to ensure that the children benefit from their legal and Constitutional rights of protection, safety and life, through:
- Ensuring that the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, to which T&T is a signatory, is fully implemented and national laws and regulations are fully consistent with the principles and provisions of the Convention
- Demanding that coordination among the bodies (both State and NGO) promoting and protecting the rights of the child is adequate and a comprehensive approach to the implementation of the Convention be done, by ensuring that these Committees/bodies have proper institutional capacity, skills and financial resources to carry out their mandates
- Requesting that Government ensures that enough attention is paid, at both national and local levels, to the need for an efficient monitoring mechanism that could provide a systematic and comprehensive compilation of data to all groups of children, especially those who are victims of child abuse, ill-treatment or economic exploitation, girl children, children of single-parent families, children born out of wedlock, abandoned children, institutionalized and disabled children, children living and/or working in the streets and children involved with the juvenile justice system.
I call on all who may be or was the victim of child abuse, or knows someone who is the victim of child abuse to fight back and change the life of your abusers by Breaking Your Silence on Abuse.
It’s time for us as a nation to stop living in denial about this terrible reality and I urge all to always remember that the consequences of your denial will be with you for a lifetime and will be passed down to the next generations.
Remember, the nation’s future truly lies in the hands of our children, and it is to prevent the breakdown of our society and our country that children in T&T must be treated better.
I trust that we will all do our part to preserve our country’s future, and I implore you to always remember that every time a child is born, he or she brings with him/her the hope that God is not yet disappointed in mankind.
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