The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) along with the University of Guyana (UG), the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and Blossom Inc. on Friday launched a partnership to train persons in forensic art to aid investigations and access to justice.
In a statement issued yesterday, UNICEF said the collaboration will focus on ensuring that there is a consistent skill set to engage with the GPF and other agencies that work on the frontlines of child protection violations.
“Partnerships remain critical to both preventing and responding to all forms of violence, exploitation and abuse. While Guyana has made strides to address these violations through actions at policy, institutional, community and service delivery levels, there is still significant work to be done to ensure that every child is protected and have access to transformative justice,” UNICEF Country Representative Sylvie Fouet was quoted as saying. “Particularly, for sexual abuse and related cases where children are removed from their primary caregivers, there remains a need to ensure that a medium exists to aid in investigation and reporting of the cases,” Fouet added.
Forensic art, the statement explained, is used by law enforcement for identification, apprehension or conviction purposes and is a key component of the response to violence against children in Guyana. It noted that expertise that can be provided by forensic artists include composite drawing, which will help investigators generate leads based on physical descriptions (for example, to assist in cases of child sexual abuse or missing children – including those referred by the Childcare and Protection Agency (CPA) to Blossom Inc); image modification, which is used to change and enhance a photograph in order to help an investigator and/or trial attorney; image identification, which is the recording of a person’s distinguishing features for future reference (investigators can use this tool to identify suspects who attempt to change their appearance to evade capture, as well as in the study of cold cases); crime scene sketching, which helps support the information shown in photographs of the scene; and demonstrative evidence, which is when any visible, physical evidence is recorded in legal proceedings (used to demonstrate aspects of the case, reconstruct an event, and illustrate what happened).
According to the statement, under the partnership UG will play a critical role in the provision of forensic artists to the GPF, which will aid with their investigations, particularly in cases relating to children and adolescents.
It noted that in 2021, there are plans to support the development of a specialised course of forensic art, since such expertise can contribute to composite drawing, crime scene sketching and image identification, among other things. “This partnership offers our creative arts faculty, students and alumni, an extension of the use of their talents and training into an area of forensic specialization which is not well developed in Guyana,” Vice-Chancellor of the University of Guyana, Prof. Paloma Mohamed-Martin was quoted as saying. She added that the programme will help to give a diversified profile and fillip to the Visual Arts Department of the university’s School of Education and Humanities. “Needless to say, UG is the people’s University, so anything we can do that helps us fulfill the mandate of making life better for Guyanese, we will within our means most certainly, do,” she further said
Ayodele Dalgety-Dean, Director of Blossom Inc, called the partnership a welcome addition in the fight again child sexual abuse, where in the many hard to reach areas of Guyana, including regions One, Two, Seven and Ten, alleged perpetrators disappear into the interior and it becomes difficult to locate them without resources to help jog memories of persons they may have encountered.
Meanwhile, Commissioner of Police Leslie James recommitted the efforts of the leadership and ranks of the Guyana Police Force to partnerships and results for children. Innovation and investment in the use of local talent and expertise, he said, would carry their work forward.
The statement said the work of Blossom Inc., the CPA, and the GPF complements ongoing investments in specialised courts for sexual offences and family matters, Child Advocacy Centres, graduate and undergraduate programmes in Psychology and Social Work, the Venezuelan migration response and police training, all of which are actively supported by UNICEF.
