IT’S A BLOT on Barbados that should be removed by prompt action.
The urgent action must involve aggressive investigations and prosecutions of perpetrators who sexually and physically abuse Barbadian children.
According to the latest US State Department’s Human Rights report, the Government of Barbados, more specifically the Ministry of Family, Culture, Sports and Youth, “acknowledged child prostitution occurred”. This also comes against the backdrop of newspaper reports that “the number of young teenage girls engaged in transactional sex was increasing”.
When it comes to sexual matters, Barbados defines children as youngsters under the age of 16 years and they are too young to consent to sexual intercourse. Yet they are being paid, mainly by adult men, for sex.
Unfortunately, what aggravates the terrible situation is the Government’s failure to develop a policy and a strategy to deal with the nightmare. That became clear when the report stated categorically that “the Government (of Barbados) does not have a policy to combat sexual exploitation of children”.
Clearly, if the ministry responsible for family welfare can acknowledge that our underage youngsters are prostituting themselves, it stands to reason that the authorities have credible evidence about the victims and the adults who are taking advantage of them. In such circumstances the perpetrators should be hauled before the law courts to face statutory rape charges.
It’s not enough for the ministry to say that the criminal behaviour is a fact of life. What’s important is the action to stop what’s going on, since we must stop speaking sotto voce or looking the other way in relation to such issues.
After all, our children are among our most precious resources and should be protected. The report was clear about something else: “Violence and abuse against children remained serious problems and appeared to be on the rise” in Barbados. It wasn’t clear if the abuse was spurred by heightened awareness of the manifestations of abuse or if more people were reporting it than in prior years.
In any case, though, a strong case can be made for increased funding for the Child Care Board so it can hire more professionals and support staff to deal with the numerous problems children are facing every day.
The board has a broad mandate for the protection of children and its limited staffing and budgetary allocations are preventing it from meeting its responsibilities to the children and their parents. But we must never let money be an issue when it comes to defending the rights and interests of our children.
Overall, though, the report on Barbados painted a picture of a country that had made significant and positive strides in its efforts to grapple with a range of human rights instruments.But integration of women into all phases of the nation’s life, cracking down on officials who abuse people, and prison conditions at HMP Dodds are clearly all
critical matters.