Min­is­ter of Gen­der and Child Af­fairs Ayan­na Web­ster Roy says an in­de­pen­dent in­ves­tiga­tive team has been ap­point­ed to in­ves­ti­gate re­ports of child abuse at Chil­dren’s Homes, Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­tres and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions which pro­vide res­i­den­tial care for chil­dren.

In a press re­lease is­sued this evening, the Min­is­ter stat­ed that the in­ves­ti­ga­tion be­gan on Ju­ly 5th and the team is chaired by re­tired Ap­peal Court Judge, Jus­tice Ju­dith Jones. The fol­low­ing is a press re­lease from the Min­is­ter of Gen­der and Child Af­fairs Ayan­na Web­ster:

The Ho­n­ourable Ayan­na Web­ster-Roy, Min­is­ter with re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for Child Af­fairs, has ap­point­ed an In­de­pen­dent Team to in­ves­ti­gate re­ports of child abuse at Chil­dren’s Homes, Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­tres and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions which pro­vide res­i­den­tial care for chil­dren. The Team will al­so in­ves­ti­gate the in­ci­dence or sit­u­a­tions of chil­dren ab­scond­ing from such fa­cil­i­ties. The In­ves­ti­ga­tion com­menced on Ju­ly 5th, 2021.

The Gov­ern­ment notes its re­spon­si­bil­i­ty as­so­ci­at­ed with the care, pro­tec­tion and su­per­vi­sion of chil­dren as en­shrined in the Con­ven­tion on the Rights of the Child and em­bod­ied in the Pack­age of Chil­dren’s Leg­is­la­tion of 2015. The Min­is­ter has not­ed that, while there ex­ists pol­i­cy and pro­ce­dures for record­ing, mon­i­tor­ing and treat­ing with in­ci­dents of child abuse, it con­tin­ues, with re­cent al­le­ga­tions in the me­dia of abuse to chil­dren housed at sev­er­al Chil­dren’s Homes and a Child Sup­port Cen­tre.

Con­cert­ed ef­forts must be made to elim­i­nate its oc­cur­rence at these child care fa­cil­i­ties. She in­di­cat­ed that, “As Min­is­ter, it is my du­ty to seek the best in­ter­est of chil­dren and to do all that is pos­si­ble to en­sure that all boys and girls are hap­py, healthy and con­fi­dent that their rights are re­spect­ed, pro­tect­ed and pro­mot­ed to fa­cil­i­tate their holis­tic de­vel­op­ment to­wards achiev­ing their fullest po­ten­tial as ac­tive con­trib­u­tors to so­ci­ety”, as out­lined in the Na­tion­al Child Pol­i­cy, found at: www.opm-gca.gov.tt/Na­tion­al-Child-Pol­i­cy.

The Gov­ern­ment con­tin­ues to es­tab­lish and put in­to op­er­a­tion rel­e­vant in­sti­tu­tion­al and oth­er arrange­ments to ad­dress the needs of chil­dren and, in par­tic­u­lar, arrange­ments to en­sure the care and pro­tec­tion of those chil­dren who are Wards of the State and in need of care and placed at res­i­den­tial child care fa­cil­i­ties.

The Min­is­ter has di­rect­ed the Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty to work with the Child Pro­tec­tion Unit of the Po­lice Ser­vice to pay spe­cial at­ten­tion to the is­sue of child abuse in the ex­er­cise of its func­tions, par­tic­u­lar­ly the li­cenc­ing, mon­i­tor­ing and eval­u­a­tion ex­er­cise of Chil­dren’s Homes, Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­tres, Child Sup­port Cen­tres and any oth­er in­sti­tu­tion un­der the re­mit of the Au­thor­i­ty.
The Team con­duct­ing the in­ves­ti­ga­tion is Chaired by re­tired Ap­peal Court Judge, Jus­tice Ju­dith Jones and com­pris­es:
  Mr Lawrence J. Ar­joon, Child/Youth NGO Rep­re­sen­ta­tive
  Cdr Loren­zo P. Char­iandy Rt., Youth Pro­gram­ming
  Ms Aisha Cor­bie, Clin­i­cal Psy­chol­o­gist
  Dr Mona Dil­lon, So­cial Work­er
  Mr Aaron George, Youth Rep­re­sen­ta­tive
  Ms Claire E. Git­tens Rt., So­cial Work­er
  Mr Mar­cus V. Kissoon, Re­searcher: Gen­der and De­vel­op­ment
  Mr Ke­shan Latch­man, Clin­i­cal Psy­chol­o­gist
  Dr Sta­cy-Ann Phillip, Child Psy­chi­a­trist
The in­ves­ti­ga­tion will take place over a pe­ri­od of four months and will in­volve in­ter­views, doc­u­ment re­views, sub­mis­sions and site vis­its to var­i­ous fa­cil­i­ties and or­gan­i­sa­tions ser­vic­ing chil­dren.