The OECS Commission in partnership with UNICEF, commissioned an assessment of the child protection and child justice systems in St. Vincent and the Grenadines between 2016 and 2017.
The assessment was based on the premise that this country recognized its responsibility and human rights obligations to the nation’s children in order to be effective and in compliance with international standards.
This assessment was conducted by the Consultant, Mrs Jacqueline Sealy-Burke.
As part of the follow-up to the consultancy, the commission in collaboration with UNICEF, under the Juvenile Justice Reform Project (JJRP) will convene a three-day national consultation and discussions with:-
- Policymakers including parliamentarians and permanent secretaries, and senior technical directors;
- Wider stakeholders from governments and non-governmental agencies.
The three-day consultation is scheduled for the period December 12 – December 14, 2017 at the Sunset Shores Hotel from 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. On day one the consultation is expected to present the findings of the research to the following:
- the Ministry of Education
- the Ministry of Health
- the Magistracy
- the Ministry of National Security
- the Ministry of National Mobilisation
- the Director of Public Prosecution Office
Day two of the Consultation would have the Senior Officials from the Ministries of Health, Education, National Security, Magistracy and the Mobilisation et al. meet to be informed of the findings and to begin the process of harmonising the next steps and way forward.
Day three is expected to have practitioners engaged in creating an action plan and forward methodological responses to the findings in an all-day working session.
With the support of the consultant, it is expected that a National Action plan would be developed at the end of the consultations.
The Ministry of National Mobilisation, therefore, takes this opportunity to hereby extend an invitation to the media to attend the consultations at the stated date and time.