RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

High Court Judge Jus­tice Frank Seep­er­sad has called for a com­pre­hen­sive re­view of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s adop­tion and fos­ter care laws, urg­ing ac­tion to pro­tect vul­ner­a­ble chil­dren and sup­port all forms of par­ent­ing.

Speak­ing at Curepe Pres­by­ter­ian Church on Sun­day dur­ing a Moth­er’s Day ser­vice, Seep­er­sad said, “As a so­ci­ety we need to re­view our Adop­tion and Fos­ter Care laws and forge a sys­tem which ef­fi­cient­ly fos­ters and sup­ports the car­ing of chil­dren.”

He ex­plained: “We must en­sure that all chil­dren who can­not re­main with their bi­o­log­i­cal par­ents are placed in safe and lov­ing homes, as a mat­ter of pri­or­i­ty and many more per­sons who wish to be­come par­ents should pur­sue adop­tion.”

Jus­tice Seep­er­sad al­so warned that youth in­creas­ing­ly join gangs and crim­i­nal lifestyles, and he em­pha­sised the need for in­ter­ven­tion and guid­ance.

“Every sin­gle child and young per­son can be a bless­ing and every child has some unique gift, skill or tal­ent, how­ev­er not every child in our beloved Coun­try has a moth­er or moth­er fig­ure.”

Seep­er­sad said cit­i­zens must chal­lenge sys­tems that cre­ate in­jus­tice.