Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs Kirk Humphrey has made it clear that while the Government is seeking to give children a voice, there is no intention to abolish parental rights.
In fact, dismissing suggestions that the Child Protection Bill, 2023 is designed to take away the rights of parents, he said nothing could be further from the truth as “parents now have way more protection”.
Humphrey cleared the air on the issue as he responded to human rights activist Felicia Dujon’s charge at a Democratic Labour Party (DLP) meeting on the weekend that the Bill debated in Parliament last week collided with parental rights.
The Minister argued that within the existing legislation, there are few references to parents but the Child Protection Bill, 2023 would change that.
“When you look at what exists now, there are very few protections set into that legislation for parents. And I say, Sir, on this floor of Parliament without fear of contradiction, that our legislation now has more protection for parents than any other piece of legislation that refers to children in this country, for sure.
“But there is now a narrative, obviously meant to achieve political ends, suggesting that we have somehow taken away the rights of parents,” Humphrey said while speaking on the Bill in the House of Assembly on Tuesday.
“It is clear to me that even at the risk of the reputation of this country, even at the risk of hurting the very same children that this legislation seeks to protect, that those who come forward will go to all lengths to try to get political office, even if it means that it destroys the same children that it is trying to protect.”
Dujon, a lecturer in philosophy at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, spoke on the Child Protection Bill while addressing a joint meeting of the DLP’s St George South and St George North branches on Sunday evening.
Insisting that parents are the voices of their children and not the State, she claimed that the Bill presents several challenges to a correct understanding of parental rights and poses serious risks for the current obligations that Barbados has ratified as a member of the international human rights community.
However, Humphrey said he did need anybody who “skimmed” through legislation to tell him how the system works.
“I know for a fact that parents now have way more protection. The need to consult [parents] in this legislation begins at the very beginning and goes all the way to the end, from the cradle to the grave consultation with the parents, to the extent that we are now allowing the officers to go to the households and work with parents,” he said, adding that the overall objective of the legislation is to keep families together with a special interest in protecting children.
“So for those who have a lot to say that we are taking away the rights, I encourage them – in fact, I challenge them – to pull the legislation that currently exists [and] show me the rights of parents in that legislation; to pull this legislation and show me where we have taken away any single rights of parents in this legislation.
“And I go further – when they fail at it, because they will fail at it, I will then show them all of the things we put in to protect children in this legislation,” Humphrey added.
(AH)
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