UN’s promise to children not kept after 33 years, says UWI official

Professor Aldrie Henry-Lee, pro vice-chancellor, graduate studies and research at The University of the West Indies (UWI), says the United Nations General Assembly Convention on the Rights of the Child, which became effective in September 1990, has failed to keep its promise to protect children.

“On November 20, 1989, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a convention on the Rights of the Child. The convention became effective on September 2, 1990. It promised to provide adequately for children; protect them from all harm, and to allow them to speak freely about matters that affect them. Thirty-three years later, this promise has not been kept. Childhood in the Caribbean remains fragile and very risky,” Henry-Lee told a UWI Vice-Chancellor’s Forum on Masculinity, Fatherhood and Children’s Rights, on Monday.

The forum, held in observance of World Children’s Day, and International Men’s Day, which was recognised a day earlier, examined the well-being of children and men, noting both are closely linked.

In support of her statement, Henry-Lee quoted figures released by the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) which showed that last year, 1,800 Jamaican children were victims of various crimes in 2022.

“Of that number, 53 were murdered, 465 were victims of sexual offences, 224 were raped, 281 were assaulted and 71 were victims of shooting. Many children are neglected and abused,” Henry-Lee noted.

According to the pro vice-chancellor, “A large number of Caribbean children live in poverty, unable to realise their full potential. For example, the Jamaica Survey of Living Conditions 2019 reported that among all individuals living in poverty, 28 per cent are 0-14 years. Children are exposed to violence directly or indirectly every day in public and private spaces. High levels of violence and crime in certain communities negatively impact children’s safety and well-being both physically and psychologically.”

Figures from the JCF in September also show that, since the start of the year, the police have received 699 reports of children gone missing. However, 553 of those missing have since returned home.

A 2021 UN report also painted a worrying picture of abuse of children in the home.

According to the UN: “Violence against children is a challenge in Jamaica that is closely related to gender-based violence. UNICEF has concluded that 80 per cent of Jamaican children experience violence at home and 65 per cent undergo bullying at school.”

The report stated that prevailing social norms, cultural practices and normalisation of violence are some of the contributing factors to this.

In another topic touched on during the forum, Patrick Lalor, policy and advocacy officer, Jamaica AIDS Support for Life, looked at the critical area of toxic masculinity. According to the youth advocate, toxic masculinity is not the way to go.

“Masculinity impacts fatherhood and fatherhood impacts children,” Lalor stated. “When I look at the region and, even more specifically Jamaica, this whole proliferation of ideas that subscribe to traditional gender roles for males and defines a man as being in charge, being aggressive, being the kind of person that demeans women, being violent and not performing certain functions, all of these things that are put out there that say this is what it means to be a man, if you do this you’re not a man and if you don’t do this you’re not a man. What it does is continue to promote violence and continues to marginalise our men and boys who step outside of this box.”

Lalor, who has worked extensively around legislative advocacy, said ideas about masculinity have found their way into the legislation, which contains some archaic laws.

“Jamaica still has a Sexual Offences Act that marginalises men and boys. We still have a Sexual Offences Act that says that a man cannot be raped and that when that act of violence is perpetrated against a man then it is treated as some lesser harm, and even the penalty for the perpetrator is way less, and these positions are rooted in toxic masculinity.”

“The fact that when you try to make these changes in law that, the theory that fuels homophobia seeps in and says this is some plan to bring in homosexuality through the back door; and all of this ideology about what it means to be man has hampered even our legislative development,” Lalor commented.

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