The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) along with the Guyana Association of Women Lawyers and the Guyana Bar Association (GBA) yesterday hosted a conference to educate legal practitioners and social workers on making child rights “more visible” in Guyana.
The conference is one of the outputs of a memorandum between the three organisations to ensure that the rights of children are made more visible through their works, while also serving as a catalyst for the acceleration of those rights.
GBA Secretary Christopher Ram stated that the organisation was pleased to present its “aspirations and passions from paper ideals to practical and useful efforts.”
The bodies discussed justice concepts on areas neglected by the legal community. Ram stated that the legal community is currently failing the family and children. “Apart from the Domestic Violence Act of 1996, the remaining suite of legal instruments are woefully underutilised and perhaps more misunderstood,” he declared, while noting that the Family Court has been the locus of “two useless” political Commissions of Enquiry, which has cost at least half a billion dollars with not a cent spent on children or family issues.
Ram stated that while lawyers have done a considerable job in conceptualizing, interpreting and applying rules, there were still some issues that were not addressed. He said part of the problem is the commitment to indigenous scholarship.
“The Guyana Bar Association has made a commitment to continuing legal education. Over the past two years, we have hosted several lectures and seminars. The Guyana Association of Women Lawyers has excelled in this aspect of its work as well,” he stated, before indicating that they had hoped to bring the issue before the 10th Parliament for consideration of introducing a scheme of continuing legal education.
He posited that it was necessary for the development of the indigenous jurisprudence, since neither English legal scholars nor West Indian researchers write for the lawyers and laws of Guyana.
“The task falls to us to create our own culture of scholarship and legal excellence if we are to fulfill our duties to the Guyanese Society,” he charged, before highlighting the small number of male participants at the conference. He said child rights are not a gender issue but one that affects and involves an entire society—both male and female.
Ram stated further that there is a need to expand the debate on child rights from “dry rigid technicalities” to the personal and emotional elements associated with justice for children. “Let us remember that we adults are better able to rationalise, cope with and advocate for solutions to our problems. Children are understandably less equipped as our suicide statistics so starkly reveal,” he said.
“Until we enjoy economic justice, environmental justice, feminine justice, the rights of the unborn child, until the justice system itself becomes just, until we achieve the grand vision in the single fundamental right provision in our Constitution, which grandly states that every person in Guyana is entitled to the basic right to a happy, creative and productive life, free from hunger, ignorance and want, we must not rest,” he said, charging the legal representatives to advocate, educate and exhort persons and institutions, and customs and habits that impede children’s justice.
The participants of the conference were urged by UNICEF Representative Marianne Flach to share their experiences, ideas, works and pieces on innovation in the upcoming Guyana Bar Review, which will be dedicating its next edition to focus on child rights.
Flach stated that there is a need to unite for children and ensure that there is equality for all of them, including controversial matters like the abolition of corporal punishment, raising the age of sexual consent and raising the age of criminal responsibility along the issue of non-discrimination for children and youth who may identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, or Queer (LGBTQ).
“For UNICEF, equality means that all children— yes, all children—have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential with discrimination, bias, or favouritism,” she said, while noting that it is consistent with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which guarantees the fundamental rights of every child regardless of gender, race, religious beliefs, income, physical attributes, geographical location or other status.
“We hope that today’s session will also represent a step toward continuing legal education” while challenging the Guyana Bar Association and the Guyana Association of Women’s Lawyers to develop a comprehensive plan for continuing legal education,” she stated.
Flach indicated that it will inspire increased knowledge and awareness of child rights in the legal sector, ultimately strengthening legislation, including drafting and costing, and policy development for children.
“It is our hope that this plan or at least a framework for the development of a plan for continuing legal education can be ready by June 2015,” she said, adding that once the plan is developed, and includes a clear component on child rights, UNICEF would be committed to adding its name for the support and possible roll out of the plan “as continuing legal education is a necessary input to ensure that the rights of all children are integrated into and upheld by our laws”.
She noted further that UNICEF was pleased to partner with both organisations and hopes that it is the first of a series of measures to share information and generate response to the issue of child rights.
Hazel Thompson-Ahye, of Trinidad and Tobago, gave presentations on the best practices for the Family Courts and application of the “best interests of the child” principle, while Justice Marie Mettendaf and Raoul Dankoor, both part of a Surinamese delegation, shared their experiences and research on contemporary approaches to justice for children.
