Christina Scott
The following address was delivered by Governor Scott on Tuesday 19th November.
It seems to me, after everything we have heard this morning, that as adults we face two choices:
There are those who decide to believe in intervention and speaking out. And those who don’t.
Some people believe that we should – whenever we can – act decisively. That the interdependence of our villages and communities makes it more important than ever that we seek to support one another every way that we can.
Others prefer not to act.
Some say we have no right to intervene when others choose to organise their affairs differently. That it is better to keep silent.
Others say intervention is risky. That it is rarely if ever effective. That we should mind our own business.
I disagree with both of these.
Faced with inequality in our community, and the denial of potential, I believe we need to intervene – energetically and with determination – to support our young people.
And more than anything, we must protect our most vulnerable children and those who are abused.
We need to make sure, that as a society, we identify, reach out and rescue those children who have been suffering the most.
A child’s opportunity to flourish should not be a matter of chance – it should be the mission which guides all our actions.
And we can make a difference. Each of us, whether community leaders, educators, police, colleagues, families, parents and neighbours.
PROFESSIONALS
Some may say this is a matter for the professionals alone. Let’s leave it to them.
Yes, our professionals have a vital role to play.
It is hard to imagine how difficult, and how challenging, working with children in need can be. But also how important.
• Our colleagues spend their time with the children and families in our community who face the most serious difficulties – those who may have been battered by events and circumstances. In many cases, those families are deeply resistant to accepting the help they need.
• We rely on them to build relationships with parents, to win their trust and understand their problems, whilst thinking hard – and first – about the needs of the children.
• We rely on our educators, to identify those at-risk children, to support them, and to make sure they can access the support they need.
• And we rely on our police colleagues to deal sensitively with family matters that have been brought to their attention, and to work with legal colleagues to take these matters smoothly through the courts where crimes against children have been committed.
So yes, our professionals are key.
And I say thank you to them all for the work that they do.
To help them to help our children, I think that we need to continue to improve the professionalism of those who work with children.
We need to break out of bureaucratic ways of working to generate better results across different organisations. If there are cracks between our organisations, then we can be sure that there will be vulnerable children who fall through those cracks.
We need to be clear about accountability – what we expect, and who from – so that the most vulnerable get the protection they deserve
We need to make sure we have the right legislation in place to support the abused and to bring the abusers to justice. And the right court support in place – including the establishment of a ‘family court’ if it will better support our children;
And we need to make sure that those who have the confidence to speak out, to save a child, receive the right support from the police. And so I am pleased that by Christmas, with financial support from my office, all front-line police officers in Anguilla will have received training on how best to deal with these sensitive family issues.
REST OF US
The Convention on the Rights of the Child spells out the basic human rights to which children everywhere are entitled:
• The right to survival
• The right to the development of their full physical and mental potential
• The right to protection from influences that are harmful to their development
• The right to participation in family, cultural and social life.
As others have said, there is a responsibility on each of us to make this a reality.
If we see something that suggests a child is at risk, we should not stay silent.
We should resist the temptation to say ‘it will be alright’.
Or: ‘I know that parent will change how they behave’.
Or: ‘I’m sure it is just a passing phase’.
Or: I’m sure my suspicions are wrong, so I’d better stay quiet.
That is just kidding ourselves.
Keeping our silence can mean that the children – who are always our first concern – can be left at risk and in danger when we need to intervene to rescue them from an abusive environment, just as we would seek frantically to rescue them from the scene of any natural disaster.
A child who is not turning up at school, or turns up bruised, too afraid to speak out, if anybody bothers to speak to them at all. A child seen using alcohol or drugs.
As long as we close our eyes and look away, collectively, all of us fail to stand behind that child.
Our silence breeds a culture of acceptance. It increases the risks of psychological distress.
Our silence increases the chance of that child facing an early pregnancy, or catching sexually transmitted infections.
And our silence increases the chance of perpetuating the cycle of abuse, as that child grows up with a corroded view of what parenting should be.
It is time to break the silence.
So let us use this rally, and this week, as a rallying call to join together to break the silence and to end child abuse.
Thank you
