There is a dangerous contradiction in how Jamaica talks about children. We say children are our future. We celebrate them, pray for them, invest in them, and tell them to respect adults. Yet when children are abused, neglected, humiliated, exploited, or failed by the very systems meant to protect them, our response is often silence, justification, or institutional defensiveness.

Enough!

Eve for Life Jamaica is calling for justice for our children. This call goes beyond gender-based violence. It is a call to confront every form of abuse and violence against children — in State care, in schools, in homes, in communities, online, and in any institution where adults have been entrusted with children’s safety and development.

There is no excuse for abuse. Abuse does not become acceptable because it is described as discipline. It does not become less harmful because it is committed in the name of morality, religion, culture, values, or tradition — and it does not become permissible because an adult believes that children must simply obey.

Adult authority is not a licence to violate a child’s rights. Jamaica ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), committing itself to protecting children from violence, abuse, neglect, and exploitation and to upholding principles such as acting in the best interest of the child, non-discrimination, the child’s right to development, and the right to be heard.

These are not abstract international ideals. They are obligations.

Jamaica’s Child Care and Protection Act establishes a framework for the protection and welfare of children, while the Education Act provides the legal framework for education. Together with Jamaica’s international commitments, they make clear that children’s welfare, development, dignity, and protection cannot be treated as optional.

Yet, too often, the question after a child is harmed becomes: What did the child do? Instead, we should be asking:

• What did the adults do?

• What did the institution do?

• Who knew?

• Who should have known?

• Who failed to act?

When abuse is disguised as discipline

We must confront one of the greatest barriers to protecting children: the normalisation of harmful behaviour.

Children are beaten, humiliated, or psychologically harmed, and we call it discipline. Children disclose sexual abuse, and adults question their behaviour, their clothing, their sexuality, and their credibility. Children are bullied, and we tell them to toughen up. A child in institutional care is neglected, and the circumstances surrounding the child become an excuse for inadequate care.

We trivialise and justify; we tell ourselves the adult meant well, but good intentions do not erase harm. Culture does not erase harm; religion does not erase harm; discipline does not erase harm; and poverty does not erase a child’s rights.

Jamaica must stop confusing control with care and obedience with protection. Children need boundaries, guidance, and accountability. But discipline must never be used as a justification for violence, humiliation, degradation or abuse.

State care carries a special responsibility

The State has a heightened responsibility when it takes a child into its care. A child in State care is not a lesser child. That child has the same rights as every other child — and the State’s assumption of responsibility makes the obligation to protect that child particularly important.

When allegations of abuse arise in State care, there must be prompt, independent, and child-sensitive investigation. There must be accountability, and there must be transparency about systemic failures.

We cannot allow concern for an institution’s reputation to outweigh concern for a child’s safety. Institutions exist to serve children. Children do not exist to protect institutions.

Schools must be safe before they are “ready”

As Jamaica prepares schools for students, we must broaden what we mean by “readiness”. A school is not ready merely because the building has been repaired, the classrooms cleaned, and the furniture put in place. Schools must be safe and ready for children to learn. That means functioning safeguarding systems, trained personnel, clear reporting mechanisms, appropriate responses to disclosures, protection from bullying and violence, and an environment in which children can speak without fear of retaliation or humiliation.

Education cannot thrive where children are afraid. A repaired school building without a safe school culture is not enough.

The double standard must end

There is also a troubling double standard in accountability. When an individual citizen harms a child, we rightly demand justice, but when an institution fails a child — or when multiple adults fail to act — the response can become slower, quieter, and more forgiving.

That cannot continue. The State must be held accountable for its obligations. Citizens must also be held accountable for their responsibilities. These are not competing principles. They are complementary.

The Government has a duty to establish and enforce effective systems of protection. Professionals and institutions have a duty to safeguard children. Citizens have a responsibility not to ignore credible signs of abuse and to use appropriate reporting mechanisms.

We cannot demand accountability from ordinary citizens while excusing institutional failure. Nor can we blame the State for everything while communities remain silent when children are being harmed in their midst.

Silence protects the wrong person

Citizen apathy is part of the problem. Too often, people know something is wrong but decide it is not their business.

“It is a family matter.”

“I don’t want trouble.”

“The school will deal with it.”

“Maybe the child misunderstood.”

“That is how they discipline children.”

For a child experiencing abuse, silence is not neutral. Silence can leave a child alone with the person causing the harm. Children cannot carry the responsibility for protecting themselves from adults. Adults must protect children. That means parents, neighbours, teachers, health-care workers, faith leaders, community leaders, social workers, and ordinary citizens must be prepared to speak, report, and act responsibly.

We must choose our children

Eve for Life is calling for a national shift— from outrage after harm occurs to prevention, protection, and accountability before harm occurs.

We call for stronger enforcement of child protection laws; robust safeguarding systems in schools and institutions; independent investigation of allegations of abuse in State care; child-sensitive reporting and justice processes; investment in children’s mental and emotional health; meaningful opportunities for children to be heard; and greater public education on child protection and reporting responsibilities.

Most importantly, we must change the social norms that allow abuse to hide behind respectable words. Morality cannot excuse abuse; religion cannot excuse abuse; culture cannot excuse abuse; discipline cannot excuse abuse; adult dominance cannot excuse abuse; and institutional reputation cannot excuse failure to protect a child.

Jamaica cannot tell children they have rights and then look away when those rights are violated. Our children deserve more than speeches; they deserve safe schools, safe homes, safe communities, safe institutions; they deserve adults who listen, systems that respond, and justice.

The question is not whether Jamaica can afford to strengthen child protection. The question is whether we can afford the consequences of continuing to fail our children. Eve for Life says no more excuses, no more silence, no more trivialising, no more justifying abuse.

Jamaica must choose its children, now.