EXECUTIVE Director of Human Rights Group Jamaicans for Justice Dr Carolyn Gomes says that the pressure must be kept on the push to reform the Child Care and Protection Act (CCPA) now in its eighth year.

“We need not to drop the ball on the reform of the Child Care and Protection Act (2004),” Dr Gomes said while speaking at the weekly Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange at the newspaper’s head office on Beechwood Avenue in St Andrew.

“It is still unclear in a number of ways, including which minister has responsibility for children and it needs work, it needs to be fixed,” Dr Gomes said.

The JFJ head has kept up the pressure on successive governments about the provisions in the Act, under which organisations such as the children’s registry and the Office of the Children’s Advocate to monitor the care and protection of children were established.

The JFJ, in a 2006 report to the Inter-American Com-mission on Human Rights (IACHR), said the process of evaluation and the monitoring reports developed by the CDA are not sufficiently guaranteeing that the children in care are being provided with the highest quality of care and treatment. It said its findings showed inefficiency and inadequacy, which led to a lack of follow-up or corrective action for issues being faced within the homes. That report high-lighted, among other things at the time that as of October 2006, the CDA remained unaware of how many children in its care were challenged visually, audibly, physically, mentally, psychologically, or educationally, and how many needed special assistance and attention as well as the nature of the assistance needed.

The Act, among other things, holds that parents have the main responsibility for the care and protection of children. Parental duties apply to: both mother and father, whether or not they live with the child; step-parents, foster parents or adoptive parents; guardians or other persons charged with the raising of the child.

Child neglect can result in maximum sentence of three years. Other types of abuse will attract higher sentences, based on the level of harm done to the child. Failing to report if you know or suspect that a child is abused or is in need of care and protection can result in a sentence of six months in prison or a fine of $500,000. The maximum sentence for incest (having sex with a daughter, granddaughter or similar relative) has been increased to 16 years imprisonment). Hiring a child to work in a nightclub attracts a penalty of $1 million and the risk of having the club closed down by the authorities.

The CCPA received final approval by Jamaica’s Parliament on March 11, 2004 and was signed into law by the governor general on March 25, 2004.