EDITORIAL - Is child abuse on Parliament's radar?

Something is awfully wrong in a society where a child is abused every half an hour. Among the bleak data laid out by an official of the Office of the Children's Registry (OCR) is that 8,000 reports of child abuse were recorded between January and September of this year.

Greig Smith, registrar of the OCR, told a Kingston audience earlier this week: "... Every 30 minutes or less we receive a report of a child being abused." This revelation is all the more frightening if we assume that some cases - perhaps many - may not be reported.

We have heard it more times than it is possible to count how Government is committed to the welfare of our children because they are the future. Jamaica has passed the Child Care and Protection Act, has developed a series of plans and programmes, has signed international conventions on the rights of children, and has established agencies designed to protect children and adolescents. Yet, the statistics tell a horrifying story of increasing abuse - physical, sexual, and emotional.

Youth Minister Lisa Hanna bristles at every suggestion by rights' advocates that enough is not being done to protect the nation's children, who are trafficked, abused, and put to work at all ages. But as she jets off to Paris to attend another conference on children's issues, we assume that these figures must be weighing heavily on her mind.

That we have failed spectacularly to protect our children both in state care and in the communities where they live is an affront to our democracy and will ultimately have a negative impact on our economic progress.

This is an issue that demands drastic immediate action. Instead of maintaining a stoic silence in the face of these damning statistics, parliamentarians should take a greater interest in this matter and use the powers of Parliament to pursue more effective protective measures for our children. We submit that an urgent national debate is necessary to confront this deeply embarrassing situation.

WHO WILL LEAD THIS PUSH?

Who will lead in this push to end the cycle of abuse that threatens to blight the future of so many potential-filled youngsters?

Many civil-society organisations are already doing yeoman service in the name of our children and any solution must involve them. A number of questions arise from this troubling matter. Should there be more done to strengthen community-based child-protection committees? Are the police sufficiently equipped to investigate these reports? Is the punishment for offenders as harsh as it should be? When the perpetrators are not caught and punished, are we not leaving the victims to the mercy of their abusers?

The gloomy conclusion is that we cannot realistically expect that child abuse will be totally eliminated despite our best efforts. But the least we could hope for is that there is less of it. It is totally unacceptable that the incidence of child abuse is increasing in Jamaica.

Having heard this most recent appraisal from the OCR, will our parliamentarians continue to maintain their silence? Who among our political representatives has the will to rise up and declare that enough is enough? If ever we need a blueprint on how to better protect our children, it is now.

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