Caddle hails ‘transformative’ Child Protection Bill

The Child Protection Bill is being praised as transformative legislation ushering in a new era of child protection in Barbados.

During the debate on the report of the Joint Select Committee of Parliament which reviewed the Bill, St Michael South MP Marsha Caddle described the update of two 100-year child laws as “groundbreaking” for the country.

“The positive association of this legislation is protection. It is a far gentler principle. It is not just the absence of cruelty,” she said, noting the previously outdated laws such as the 1918 Young Person’s Protection Act and the 1904 Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act merely aimed to prevent abuse rather than promoting children’s holistic well-being.

Reflecting on her childhood, Caddle highlighted a significant cultural shift embodied by the new legislation. “In my day, voice and agency for children were unheard of…but this created environments where children grow into adults who were afraid to create or imagine.”

The new law recognises children as human beings with rights and responsibilities entitled to state protection, she argued. “This is the radical notion that children are human. They are not our property; we are the stewards of their evolution and growth.”

Caddle reinforced Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s point about discipline without physical punishment, expressing concern over the region-wide cultural justification of hitting children as separate from abuse.

“They say: ‘Oh, well, I hit my children, but I would never do that because that is abuse. What I do is discipline.’ The challenge is that creates subjectivity wherein somebody must decide which part is discipline and which is abuse….To the extent institutions have realised they need not apply physical abusiveness to impart structure and discipline, it sends the signal to the rest of us that no one should do it.”

As Minister of Industry, Innovation, Science and Technology, Caddle addressed safeguarding children online, pointing to clauses 16 to 18 of the Cybercrime Bill against grooming and online child sexual abuse.

“The reason we single out grooming as separate from pornography is that those who would offend in this way often start right there,” she said. “A child wanders into an online environment, gaming for example…and in those spaces, you often find lurking adults who have no interest [in gaming]. They are looking for children of whom they can take advantage sexually and abuse in the worst way,” she cautioned.

The MP praised the Bill’s expansion of State intervention and integrated reporting across services and called for reframing sexual offences against minors as “rape, not consensual sex” and a cultural shift in how girls are treated as they develop.

“I feel very optimistic about where this legislation takes us…I have had far more feedback from people who feel relieved that finally the State has what it needs to protect our young people,” she said.

Praising the provisions allowing for integrated reporting systems to protect children, Caddle added: “I support the minister’s work to build out reporting systems across service providers, care providers, the police, hospitals, schools…making sure we can transmit data across state jurisdictions so we can more quickly have information on threats facing children.”

She contrasted this with current analogue systems of “filling out a form, putting it in an envelope, getting on a bus, carrying it across the road, or even sending it via email”.

Caddle also called for a broader cultural shift in attitudes toward girls. “Let’s understand that sexual development and expression, once we can give advice and guidance, is a natural part of development. But I feel as if in this Caribbean, we are not quite sure how to move from raising a child to raising an adult…This notion that you are ‘too much woman’…we need to change the narrative in our homes, families, schools, media, judicial systems.” (RG)