Ending child violations

Dr Gabrielle Hosein
Dr Gabrielle Hosein

DR GABRIELLE JAMELA HOSEIN

HEADLINES today, from violent crime to school violence to lethal violence against women, often result from trauma stemming from abuse of children.

There are other economic and social factors harming family and community resilience, but we can see this in the thousands of reports made to the Children’s Authority, police and NGOs each year, and in the recent “Safeguarding Children in Community Residences and Child Support Centres in Trinidad and Tobago” report, which focuses on institutionalised children and youth.

Child abuse, including sexual abuse, is widespread, tolerated and silenced. In that context, we must ask ourselves what preventative approach will stop this from continuing.

Following the recent report, and with the government under heat to show real action, the 25-year-old Robert Sabga-led report conveniently resurfaced, enabling the Prime Minister to return to the attack mode with which he is most comfortable.

Both reports are damning, not just of office holders and judicial officers, but of the individuals and institutions meant to protect children, and particularly of religious organisations. The same cover-up that happens in families is endemic in both church and state.

I thought the PM’s May 16 press release was opportunistic, because he is capable of being silent when the nation calls for answers and apologies. As Prime Minister, he may have established the “Ministry of Gender and Child Affairs” (which is not a ministry, but was reduced to a division within the OPM), but it is a small unit with less status, autonomy and permanent staffing than it needs (and than it had), given its centrality to issues of rights, gender equity, and gender-based and sexual violence.

We should be sceptical when institutions and initiatives are established, but are perennially under-resourced and understaffed. We should also all be aware that the Children’s Authority, to quote its former chairman, put forward the same recommendations to address “sexual and physical abuse in child-support centres” and that these were “suggested and rejected”.

In his words, published in the Newsday of May 3, "we were turned down and told there was no funding and all these different kinds of things.” Unless he wanted to also account for his administration’s failures to protect children, the PM should have avoided politicising this issue.

Key is what will now create transformation, rehabilitation and justice. We await the task force’s implementation plan and deadlines. This is not just about handing matters over to the police. It requires real recognition that children’s needs for safety, love, care and trauma healing are not being met (and have not been over decades), and the state system for oversight and response is poorly managed and resourced, and operates without accountability or consequences. What then must be put in place?

In its press release, the Institute for Gender and Development Studies (IGDS), UWI, pointed to the need for psycho-support services to be offered to present and past residents, a children's commissioner to hold the State accountable for a co-ordinated and effective approach to children’s rights, “revitalisation of the social sector and social support systems”, “a strengthened student support system”, and “reintroduction of community social work, family social work and child social work programmes and strong parent support programmes, including gender-informed parenting education programmes”.

Ending violations of children, including those institutionalised and incarcerated, requires sustained, painstaking watchdog attention when press and public have moved on.

Similarly, the Coalition Against Domestic Violence called for a “strategic framework that will provide alternatives to placing children in institutional care. This means supporting families and parents to care for their children through parenting education before and after becoming a parent, psycho-social support, social care, adequate housing and social protection.”

Their release called for training and certification, “systems of auditing and monitoring which include the feedback of children”, “evidence-based, gender sensitive and personalised psychological interventions for girls and boys” and “pathways of accountability for childcare institutions.” It also called for the decriminalisation of same-sex relations among minors, so far refused by all governments, including this one.

Beyond state, however, is the unforgivable culpability of our country’s religious hierarchy. This week, Sharon Rowley and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) were advocating for teaching gender-based violence awareness from primary school. Yet, religious groups, including those managing children’s homes, have been resisting comprehensive gender, sexuality and GBV-sensitive education for children, lobbying ministers to block what vulnerable children most need. This is a 25-year pattern of dismissing children’s rights, with impunity.

Abuse of children won’t be fixed overnight and is at risk of barely being fixed at all. Point fingers at those guilty, but note that we all have present-day responsibility.

Diary of a mothering worker

Entry 463

motheringworker@gmail.com

Comments

"Ending child violations"

More in this section