Headlines, Human Rights, Latin America & the Caribbean

JAMAICA: Brutal Killings Put Focus on Child Protections

Peter Richards

KINGSTON, Oct 22 2008 (IPS) - Stephanie Christian, a family life director at the Holy Cross Church in Jamaica, just could not understand why an adult would sexually assault a nine-month-old baby.

“This is a depraved and evil act and it is unbelievable that an adult human being could engage in such sexually deviant behaviour,” she wrote in a newspaper column, days after the boy died at the Bustamante Hospital for Children.

Jamaican Youth Minister Olivia Grange, speaking at the start of a two-day international conference on Tuesday that has brought together researchers from the Caribbean, the United States and Britain, said “society needs to be proactive in the fight to protect children”.

“People need to report their suspicions and parents need to know where their children are at all times,”‘ she added as researchers unveil their latest work on violence against children, child sexuality, parenting and other pressing issues concerning children’s rights at the third Caribbean Child Research Conference.

University of the West Indies lecturer Neville Duncan said the information gathered at the conference, being held under the theme “‘Promoting Child Rights through Research: Building a Region Fit for Children”, would provide evidence to support future policy frameworks to reduce child abuse.

Last month, National Security Minister Colonel Trevor MacMillan admitted that “the brutal murders of some of our children are horrendous”, with police records showing that so far this year 63 children have been killed. Only seven of these cases have been brought to justice.

Last month, the authorities recovered the body of 11-year-old Ananda Dean who went missing on Sep. 17. Later in the month, the dissected remains of 11-year-old Aamir Scott were found in bushes, and 15-year-old Baggio Easy’s decomposing remains were found in water on the edge of a landfill.

The local lobby group, Hear the Children’s Cry, wants the authorities to be more aggressive and has tabled a six-point plan which includes the creation of a nationwide alert system.

“Because we are extremely alarmed at the escalating violence, the Hear the Children’s Cry Committee is taking a militant approach and we will be working aggressively to get both the government and all Jamaican citizens to come together to stop the slaughter of innocent children,” said the convener of the committee, Betty Ann Blaine.

She told IPS that the nationwide alert system would be a programme similar to the Amber Alert system in the United Sates. The local system would be named in honour of Ananda Dean and called “Ananda Alert”.

“Under the Anada Alert system, whenever a child goes missing, all of the relevant security and child care agencies would be immediately mobilised to look for him or her and a nationwide manhunt would be mounted using all available means and encouraging every citizen to be on the lookout of the missing youngster,” Blaine said.

The discovery of Dean’s body provoked Industry, Investment and Commerce Minister Karl Samuda to call for a resumption of hangings in the country.

“I am not a big hanging fan, but I must tell you that we have to get back to hanging to deal with some of these people,” he said.

The last hanging took place here two decades ago. Successive governments promised to reinstitute the death penalty but attempts have faltered following objections from human rights groups and lawyers.

The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) government which came to power last September says it will hold a conscience vote in parliament to determine whether hanging should be resumed or taken off the books, but no date has been set for the vote.

Figures released by the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) show that so far this year, 723 children aged between five and 17 years have been reported missing, with 353 found or voluntarily returning home.

According to official figures, 560 of the children missing over the nine-month period were girls.

Detective Corporal Claudette Hepburn of the Centre for Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA) told the Observer newspaper here that some of the girls were lured into having sexual encounters with older men.

“We cannot put a number on it, but a good portion of them who came back, it had something to do with sex,” Hepburn said, with the police indicating that bus drivers, conductors and route taxi operators are among the main offenders.

Under Jamaican law, a sexual encounter with a female under age 16 is punishable by a three-year jail term, but the authorities admit it is proving difficult to arrest those who engage in such activities.

The JCF figures show that since 2003, police have solved less than half of the murders involving children.

According to the figures, 196 cases of the 398 murders involving children up to 17 years old have been solved, while only 116 of the 441 cases involving children shot and injured have been solved.

“What is clear is that people know they can commit murders and have a very strong chance of getting away with it,” said Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ) director, Susan Goffe.

“That is statistically proveable,” added JFJ executive director Dr. Carloyn Gomes, who told IPS that more than 1,500 people have been murdered annually over the last few years and “only 270 people are before the courts”.

She said that some of the children murdered so far this year ‘were innocent bystanders” and that “there are a number of instances of children being caught in violent crossfire”.

“We are getting a lot of abuse of kids who are supposed to be in safe environments,” she said, recalling the sexual abuse and death of the nine-month old baby.

“I don’t think as a nation we can continue to have this happening” Gomes said, even as she acknowledged that the violence was symptomatic of the overall high crime rate in the country.

“It is appalling to us, that’s why we need to push for the reform of the police service, we have been working over the months to do that, “Gomes said.

Last week, the Bruce Golding administration adopted a number of recommendations by a government-appointed task force to protect children from violence and abuse. They include the establishment of a Child Development Agency (CDA), the immediate establishment of a three-digit emergency number where children in crisis can call and report abuses, and the cooperation of the media in displaying photographs of missing children and publicising relevant information.

In addition, the Ministry of National Security will strengthen operations of the Centre for Investigations of Offences and Child Abuse and Golding said Cabinet would soon discuss sexual offence legislation that was shelved after Parliament was dissolved to make way for the 2007 general election.

The government has also announced an amendment to the police policy for handing missing children reports with Golding stating that “the police are expected to respond immediately”.

“When children go missing, the first 12 to 24 hours are the most crucial hours. When a child goes missing, immediately the police must go looking for the child,” said Blaine, who supports the new initiative.