EDITORIAL: Protecting our children key
Just this week, the Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Henrietta Fore issued a call for more investment to be put into child protection programmes, that serve to aid children affected by all forms of violence, abuse and exploitation.
Whilst she went on to place her focus on child labour, given that 2021 has been designated the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour, her comments should not fall on deaf ears.
Now back in 2018, Attorney-at-Law and UNICEF Children’s Champion, Faith Marshall-Harris stated her belief that there should be legislation in place, making it necessary for persons to report instances of child abuse. During a Symposium on Child Abuse, Marshall-Harris at the time noted that she had outlined proposed legislation four years prior, but unfortunately, that legislation was still “in utero”. The attorney pointed out however that the law could only do so much, while stating that she believes that “For a protocol for reporting child abuse to be successfully implemented without legislation, all parties should agree and subscribe to the fundamental principle that all abuse and neglect in children must be treated with the greatest vigilance, must be reported to all relevant authorities, victims and abusers must be urgently treated and abuse and neglect must be eradicated from our society”.
Just last December, it was noted that an alarming increase in child abuse reports to a national hotline, led the same noted children rights advocate Marshall-Harris, to call on the authorities to introduce child rights legislation, to legally tackle such issues. Marshall-Harris was then quoted as saying, “A lot of the calls that I get I can put down to some form of abuse and I am certainly looking forward to new legislation which has been very long in coming, where a number of abusive situations will be dealt with by law and will be spelled out and that is being worked on as we speak. We should have a new draft in the new year, I hope. This is child protection legislation.”
Now going back to the matter of the reporting of child abuse, it has been noted that “A child abuse protocol is not the magical wand through which the plight of abused children will be suddenly remedied. The creation of an effective child protection system calls for a number of responses, including appropriate legislation, effective social services delivery; trained personnel and the political will to effect positive change. Nevertheless, a protocol can go a long way, when combined with other essential ingredients, to enhancing child protection procedures”. Certainly, this is the information contained in a document entitled “Child Protection in Barbados: The Need for a National Reporting Protocol”, produced by The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) some years ago.
Now we are aware that the process of amending legislation or even creating new pieces of legislation can be an arduous one. However, as a country, we need to decide what are priority areas for us and work on these at top speed. This may be one of the areas to which we can turn our focus, when we get some of the other key matters under control. Indeed, our children are our future and more must be done to protect and secure that future, whether via new legislation or having the relevant and requisite systems in place to ensure that vulnerable children are better protected.