Dwayne Tucker (right) of the Possibility Programme, a skills training and behavioural change programme for disadvantaged boys, presents Prime Minister Patterson with a pair of shoes, made by the boys in the programme. The two were at the launch of the United Nation's Children's Fund's (UNICEF) 2003 State of the World Children's Report, held yesterday at the Jamaica Conference Centre, downtown Kingston. - Rudolph Brown/Staff Photographer A LONG-AWAITED Child Care and Protection Act will be before Parliament for consideration by March this year, Prime Minister P.J. Patterson promised yesterday.
Mr Patterson made the promise in an address to scores of persons who gathered for yesterday's launch of the United Nation's Children Fund's (UNICEF) "State of the World's Children 2003" and an inter-generational dialogue, at the Jamaica Conference Centre (JCC), downtown Kingston.
"A child care and protection bill is near finalisation. In fact, this has been long overdue. I am instructing that the Bill be presented to Parliament for consideration by March of this year and I have given a public commitment, Minister, and it has to be met or else..," he said glancing at Minister of Health, John Junor under whose portfolio children's services fall.
On Tuesday, the lobby group, the Jamaica Coalition on the Rights of the Child bemoaned the Government's eight-year delay in passing the Act and indicated their intentions to take their concern about the matter to the United Nations Convention on Children, scheduled for the coming week.
The coalition even suggested that the Government immediately pass an interim Public Defender for Children Act so that the office with special responsibilities could be set up to help vulnerable and at-risk children while the Act was fine-tuned in the legislative process.
Acknowledging the long time the Act was taking, Mr Patterson said, "This bill has been the subject of exhaustive consultation with all stakeholders but there comes a time when you have to move from consultation into action and that time is now," he added, stating that final comments were received from the various ministries, the legal reform unit and the Attorney-General's Department.
"The bill is now with the Chief Parliamentary Counsel and we have to blast it out and get it before Parliament."
While conceding that local child care systems were inadequate, the Prime Minister said the country had made great improvements in education, gender issues and reducing infant mortality and child health care when compared to many other states in the developed and devloping worlds.
He also outlined other measures being put in place to safeguard and improve the lives of children.
These include plans for a National Schools programme for HIV/AIDS education, which he said, has been accepted as well as national policy on special issues surrounding orphans and other children made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS. He said this has been drafted and is under review.
In addition, standards and regulations for child care facilities such as children's homes and places of safety have been settled and are about to be promulgated; the Early Childhood Commission Act was approved in cabinet and is before the Senate; there have been several discussions to finalise a National Policy on Youth, the Planning Institute of Jamaica is working with UNICEF and other stakeholders on the development of a Child Information base and the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) has completed a "National Survey on the Magnitude, Character and Consequences of Child Labour."
Mr. Patterson said that the database is being edited and the findings are to be disseminated shortly at a national seminar.
