Child Care Protection Bill for Parliament

Nine-year-old Joylene Alexander, of Jericho Primary School, issues a heartfelt plea for greater protection and encouragement for the island's children, while performing a poem during the opening session of the National Consultation on Juvenile Justice at the Jamaica Conference Centre yesterday. - Dennis Coke

THE LONG-AWAITED Child Care and Protection Bill will soon be completed and tabled in Parliament.

While not giving a specific deadline for the completion, Ambassador Marjorie Taylor, Special Envoy for Children, said yesterday that those responsible for drafting the legislation were nearing "the final stanza" and would hold one more meeting to finalise the draft to be tabled in Parliament.

She was addressing the opening session of the National Consultation on Juvenile Justice at the Jamaica Conference Centre. The consultation brought together stakeholders in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems to help finalise the draft Child Care and Protection Bill and to contribute to a National Plan of Action for reform of the juvenile justice system.

Ambassador Taylor said the consultation, which was also addressed by State Minister in the Ministry of National Security and Justice, Benjamin Clare, and United Nations representative, Laila Khan, was the result of co-operation between a range of government agencies and departments and non-governmental organisations, begun in 1994 with the 'Children in Difficult Circumstances' programme.

In delivering the keynote address, Prime Minister P.J. Patterson noted that the Child Care and Protection Act will be "a landmark work of social legislation" guaranteeing children the right to a decent life and adequate provisions for the opportunity to thrive.

"Our aim is to protect children who are victims of difficult circumstances, as well as those who come into conflict with the law," Mr. Patterson told youth leaders, representatives of the Ministry of National Security and Justice, the Ministry of Health, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ).

To achieve this, he said, Government has implemented a national plan of action for the survival, protection and development of children, of which a key feature is the reorganising and upgrading of the children's services division "towards a change in perspective from a needs based to a rights based approach".

In September, the United Nations General Assembly will hold its Special Session on Children, at which Prime Minister Patterson will present a full report on the Kingston Consensus adopted in Jamaica last November during the Fifth Ministerial Meeting on Children and Social Policy.

Alluding to a 1999 report from international human rights body, Human Rights Watch, which called global attention to the ill-treatment of children in Jamaican lock-ups, Mr. Patterson stressed that his administration is committed to the principles outlined in the Kingston Consensus.

"One such principle," he said, "is to ensure that every child and adolescent in conflict with the law has due process and is treated in accordance with the relevant principles and provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other national and international legal instruments and standards for child protection."

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