Headlines, Human Rights, Latin America & the Caribbean

TRINIDAD: “There Are Monsters Among Us”

Peter Ischyrion

PORT OF SPAIN, Jun 11 2008 (IPS) - Eight-year-old Hope Arismandez never stood a chance. The autopsy report said she had been stabbed repeatedly, hit on the back of the head with a blunt object and her throat slit.

Her semi-nude body was found in late May in an abandoned cane field in central Trinidad. Police officers had been brought to the scene by her 28-year-old killer, a family friend, who in a video confession told law enforcement officials how he had lured the child away from her home on Saturday and then murdered her.

As Sunil Ali made his way to court 24 hours later, angry citizens called for him to be lynched and begged the police to turn him over. He later hung himself in his jail cell.

Hope has become the third child to be murdered here so far this year. Kennedy Deolal, 4, was forced to drink a poisonous substance by his father, while 15-year-old Brandon Calica was beaten to death with a cricket bat, also by his father. Both men have since been charged with murder.

Last year, there were also three killings, and in 2006, six young children lost their lives, including four-year-old Amy Emily Annamunthodo, who was raped, sodomised and suffocated by a male relative.

Statistics released in June by a local NGO, the Rape Crisis Society, indicate an increase in reported cases of child sexual abuse, 62 last year compared to 49 handled by the group in 2006.

The head of Trinidad’s Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Diana Mahabir-Wyatt, a former legislator, says that children are becoming victims of some of the most heinous crimes in the country.

“I am appalled at the level of brutality that children are faced with in this society. There was a time we were once known to be kind to children,” she said. “We now witness a complete lack of ethics, morals and values in our society.”

President of the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago, Martin Daley, blames “our short-sighted leaders” who do not understand that there is a difference between wealth and civilisation.

“As long as we continue to measure development by reference to material objects only, and not address the social infrastructural problems, we are doomed,” he told reporters.

The Patrick Manning government says it is moving to strengthen child protection laws. The government expects Parliament to debate by mid-June a package of children’s legislation, including creation of a Children’s Authority to investigate complaints of child abuse and advocate for children’s rights.

In February, Parliament approved the International Child Abduction Bill, as part of its ratification of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

Among the objectives of the Convention are to secure the prompt return of children wrongfully removed to or retained in any contracting state; and to ensure that rights of custody and of access under the law of one contracting state are effectively respected in the other contracting states.

Social Development Minister Dr. Amery Browne said that in addition to the legislation, the government is also implementing programmes designed to increase public awareness of children’s rights and the responsibility of the society to protect them.

“Because in no way are we, the state, able to be in every house, to observe and monitor every individual child. Any system or framework is dependent at the frontline on individual families and communities responding appropriately to the slightest sign or warning of neglect or abuse,” he said.

Browne said that the National Family Services Division is being strengthened and “we are working with a wide range of social partners to focus more on the rights of the child in this country”.

“There is also a critical responsibility of parents, family members, neighbours and other concerned elements in society to do more to act with a greater sense of personal responsibility in ensuring that cases of abuse, neglect and potential abuse or neglect are swiftly reported to our law enforcement authorities,” he said.

However, Browne, putting Hope’s killing into “perspective”, said “there are countries with modern, aggressive laws and strong systems in place to treat with child abuse and neglect, which are seeing significant increases in these kinds of horrific crimes against children.”

“So for us to sit back and say that once we put the Children’s Authority and the law in place, these things would not happen, is unrealistic,” he added.

Former opposition leader Kamla Persad Bissessar believes that the government has been tardy in effecting legislation on children’s rights that has been passed since 2000.

“They have repeatedly promised and I have brought several motions in the Parliament asking them to proclaim the children’s legislation,” she said.

Attorney and member of the National Crime and Justice Commission, Gillian Lucky, agreed, saying that while that the law alone cannot protect the welfare of children, “It must be recognised that legislation in the specific area of child protection is sadly lacking.”

“Yes, there are monsters among us, and that having been said, what are we doing to capture and prevent them from preying on our vulnerable children?” she asked.

Lucky acknowledged the efforts of various groups to get laws and policies implemented to protect children.

“But the effort has to be sustained, intense and holistic if significant strides are to be made. The entire society has to come forward and give assistance,” she added. “With the advent of crimes targeted at young people such as internet pornography, child prostitution and human trafficking, the public must be confident that this administration is not caught sleeping while on duty.”

In an editorial, the Express newspaper called for greater cooperation among all stakeholders, noting “what also has to be understood is that, thousands of years after the so-called primitive era, evil in the form of barbaric behaviour not only remains as aspect of the human condition but is still very poorly understood.”