Abrahams: Burden of reporting child abuse being removed from victim

Authorities and other adults whose work requires them to play a role in children’s lives are responsible for reporting incidents of abuse, says Minister of Home Affairs Wilfred Abrahams.

He pointed out to his colleagues in the House of Assembly on Tuesday evening that provisions were made in the Child Protection Bill to ensure that children did not have to report that they were being abused. 

Noting that this was a contentious aspect of the Bill, the minister said that for too long, authorities relied on children to give evidence. In some cases, he said, a child may not report an incident as they had to return to the household with the same parent after making a complaint and their environment may not be safe.

“In order to protect the child, you have to take the 100 per cent burden off that child to report, and spread that burden around to other people who should have the child’s best interest at heart,” he said as the House of Assembly considered a resolution on the report of the Joint Select

Committee for Social Sector and Environment on the Child Protection Bill.

“Quite often, when things are happening to a victim and have been happening over a period, somebody does know. When it gets to the point where somebody is convicted, then people say ‘I did always know so and so  was going on’ . . . but for some reason we have a culture almost in Barbados that people don’t want to get involved . . . but if you choose not to put the perpetrator in trouble, then you are perpetuating the child as the victim. So the law says we need to start to put some responsibility  on people who have a duty to look out for that child.”

Abrahams said that under the new Bill, authoritative figures, whom children look up to and trust and can be considered loco parentis – assuming the duties and responsibilities of a parent – are legally obligated to say something, especially if there were clear signs of abuse. 

Quoting from the ‘mandatory reporting’ section of the Bill, he said: “This section shall apply to a parent, a medical health practitioner, dental practitioner, nurse or other mental health practitioner . . . an administrator of a hospital or medical facility . . . a school principal, teacher or other teaching professional . . . .”

An internet provider, film technician, computer technician  or telecommunications technician are also duty-bound to speak up.

“Those persons are perfectly placed to discover things that other people can’t,” the minister pointed out.

For example, he said, a paedophile could be caught based on their digital footprint and messages from their digital devices.

Other duty-bound individuals include religious officials, law enforcement officers, and “any other person who, by virtue of the nature of their work, owes a duty of care to a child”.

He added that even though a job may not be explicitly mentioned in the legislation, it did not mean an individual in that position was exempt from the duty of reporting abuse.