Guyanese Justice Desiree Bernard is slated to address the opening of the second International Society of Family Law (ISFL) Caribbean Regional Conference billed for Nassau, Bahamas from November 19 – 21.
Justice Bernard, a former Chancellor of the Judiciary in Guyana and retired judge of the Caribbean Court of Justice, will speak on the conference theme, ‘Our Children, an Endangered Species’, a press release said.
Meanwhile, Professor Marsha Garrison of Brooklyn Law School, will address the question ‘Why has the United States failed to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child?’ the release said. Professor Garrison was recently elected President of the ISFL at the World Conference in Recife, Brazil.
The Caribbean Regional Conference commemorates the 25th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and is being hosted by the Bahamas Bar Association.
The venue for the conference is the British Colonial Hilton Hotel and it is being coordinated by Hazel Thompson-Ahye, member of the Executive Council of the ISFL.
According to the release, Professor Garrison said the ISFL had received glowing reports about the first ISFL Caribbean Conference in Nassau in 2011 and she was determined to attend the second one. ISFL members from around the globe will also be in attendance.
Meantime President of the Bahamas Bar Association Elsworth Johnson and government officials will also address the gathering.
The release said that in addition to the issue of violence against children, other topics to be addressed by regional and international judges, academics, lawyers and psychologists, include: local and inter-country adoptions, children in alternative care, removal of children from parental care, levelling the playing field in contested custody cases, access and child maintenance, human embryology and fertilization in the Caribbean context, children’s rights in Europe, juvenile justice, rights of disabled children, false claims of paternity in selected Caribbean countries, integrating restorative justice in Trinidad Family Court, behind the mask of a sexual predator, international child abduction, enforcement of custody and support, racism and gender, and inter-agency collaboration in the service of children.
Further information about the conference can be obtained by emailing the planning committee at conference@bahamasbarassociation.com or Hazel Thompson-Ahye at epiphanyconsultancytnt@gmail.com
