While politics and other divisive matters continued to loom in Anguilla over the past few days, there was at least one positive development. It was a quiet, but intensive, three-and-a-half-day workshop which, unfortunately, got limited publicity on the airwaves. Labelled A Training Workshop for Key Sectors Working in the Area of Juvenile Justice, it was aimed at helping to draw up initiatives aimed at redirecting the lives of a number of misguided young people and affording them a chance to reform and to be the recipients of juvenile justice in a largely unfair and unforgiving world society.
That the workshop, funded by UNICEF, and facilitated by regional consultants, was to some extent predicated on the successful establishment of the Zenaida Haven Residence at Rey Hill, for boys, and the excellent work of the Probation Department, was a plus for Anguilla in its efforts towards youth rehabilitation. The lone outside delegation, from the British Virgin Islands, may have regarded the event as a learning experience to share with stakeholders on their home-front where such recognition for juvenile justice and reform is bound to be a growing concern. The workshop involved the participation of various leading persons on the Bench and in the Judiciary; the Attorney General’s Chambers, the Ministry and Department of Social Development; the Royal Anguilla Police Force; Civil Society groups and individuals. It was, in short, a cadre of influential persons putting their heads together to address an important social consideration in Anguilla.
The training objectives of the workshop were very detailed and exhaustive. The list included: To become familiar with the key requirements of a fair and effective juvenile justice system; to have a better appreciation of the various stages of the juvenile justice process and the roles played by important decision-makers; to facilitate a better understanding of the unique features of youth development that relate to their involvement in the juvenile justice system; to ensure that juvenile justice service providers come to terms with their own personal views and biases on issues. Of much importance, also, were such objectives as: To ensure that the critical importance of the age of criminal responsibility is respected in the processing of juvenile cases; to heighten awareness of the range of rights that children should be guaranteed once arrested; to highlight the important role of assessments of children in the effective administration of the juvenile justice system; to become familiar with the notion of pre-charge diversion and to familiarise participants with some of the key procedural issues that operate at the stage of the formal court proceedings, with particular reference to the provisions within the Child Justice Bill.
The Child Justice Bill, an OECS initiative, is currently being studied by a committee in Anguilla before being taken later on to the House of Assembly for adaptation and passage. The reference to the above objectives of the Juvenile Justice Workshop does not mean that such practices are not already being observed in Anguillaa to some extent. But to have them actually written down on paper is a sure way of having a system of record-keeping and enforcement which can keep juvenile justice constantly before those stakeholders charged with that responsibility.
Surely, we do not want our young people, as wayward as they may be, to ever be treated like adults in the justice system. They must be accorded, and kept within their own sphere of justice treatment; have access to rehabilitative programmes and processes which, when properly implemented, will enable them to be guided along a path of social redemption and development. To do less, in a small but developing island state, like Anguilla, will be to set the stage for a generation of Anguillians who may be social outcasts in their own land, and an ever-present burden on society. If we want to have a band of properly rehabilitated young people, then we must not drop the ball – but take it and run with it.
The workshop, referred to above, was indeed a welcome outreach for juvenile offenders, juvenile justice, and the rehabilitation of a growing number of vulnerable young people in Anguilla.
