MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Against the backdrop of cases of children being abused and murdered that have rocked the nation, Minister of Justice Delroy Chuck says child-friendly centres are needed islandwide.

“Across Jamaica our children are being abused, violated, molested, trafficked and in far too many cases murdered…We have to save our children from these molesters and those who want to take advantage of our children,” Chuck said while addressing the launch of a child-friendly centre in Mandeville on Friday.

The centre, located at the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) building on Caledonia Road, is the second to be opened geared at providing support for children who are victims of crime and to reduce the level of trauma experienced by children who interface with the courts as witnesses/victims.

Chuck said the first centre was opened in Portland, but others are needed.

“We have done two. We are planning a third one in St Catherine, but we need 14 [centres]…The other victim service divisions [excluding Portland and Manchester] will put a burden on the Ministry of Justice to provide a similar space…The victim service divisions are in the 14 parishes and in truth these are the ones who will help the court to ensure that those molesters and potential molesters are kept from violating our children,” explained Chuck.

The centres are being done through a US$6.7-million donation by the United States to help fight child trafficking in Jamaica under the US-Jamaica Child Protection Compact Partnership.

Under a four-year plan to build on and strengthen Jamaica’s existing efforts in the identification, provision of comprehensive trauma-informed care, prosecution and conviction, as well as prevention of child trafficking in all its forms, in 2018, the United States and Jamaica along with the Warnath Group signed an agreement.

This agreement seeks to build the capacity of Jamaican law enforcement and victim service providers to increase the level of victim-centred care that is appropriate and tailored to the needs of the victims.

A child-friendly centre or space is an environment designed to help children who are victims of crime to feel safe, calm, and comfortable while interacting with professionals, including law-enforcement officers, social workers, health-care professionals and prosecutors.

Chuck suggested that the centres be upgraded to also serve as witness boxes.

“This process is to assist the Victim Services Division of our social justice programme to ensure not only that abused children are mentored and counselled, but they are prepared to go to court and to give evidence,” he said.

“In future we may want to get these child-friendly spaces to be witness boxes, so we can easily put the video camera there without taking the children to court. They can stay right there in the child-friendly space and questions can be asked of them, because then they will be relaxed. They would not be coerced. They would not be forced. They would feel comfortable to be able to give their evidence,” added Chuck.

He said abused children are suffering in silence.

“In truth, our children who are molested not only are they victims, but the way they react is to remain silent. They just don’t know how to open up and that is why we have to assist them to be able to tell their story, not to make up a story, but to see exactly what occurred…Across Jamaica the evidence is there,” said the justice minister.

“Daily our children are being violated and it is important that we send the message not only to communities and to families, but to all of Jamaica, far too many of our children are suffering in silence,” he added.

Chuck urged Jamaicans to report cases of children being abused.

“It is absolutely important [when] neighbours know that a child is being violated, brutalised and abused, that they inform the authorities, so that these children can in fact be protected,” he said.

“…Far too many of our adults believe that the only way to straighten their children up is not for mentoring or counselling and communication verbally, but to brutalise them. They feel that the whip and the punch and the pinching, literally strangulation, is the way that these children can be straightened out. And invariably it creates an atmosphere of violence — which is [the] very type of behaviour that these children take back out into [society],” added Chuck.