UN expert sounds alarm over risks to children

Barbadian children are facing “urgent” threats, including a surge in obesity, entrenched inequalities in education, and the marginalisation of disabled youth, a UN rights specialist has warned, as calls grow for national action to end what she termed a deepening crisis.

On World Children’s Day, observed on Thursday, UN child rights expert Faith Marshall-Harris warned that these issues demand immediate national attention.

“I would like to see them survive and thrive by ensuring that they have the best possible health outcomes,” she said. “One of the topics uppermost in our minds at this time is the growing incidence of childhood obesity.”

She said healthier food habits must be a priority and that parents need support to reinforce these choices. “We need to put greater effort in ensuring that they make healthy food choices, and we therefore need to reinforce this message with parents to help them to make those choices,” she explained.

The UN expert also highlighted the need to strengthen the education system so all children receive fair and transformative opportunities. She said Barbados must ensure that children have “the highest standard of education and the greatest possible access to such education; that it is fit for purpose; that it is transformative in their lives.”

She added that although Barbados has a history of educational excellence, “there are areas in education where we can attain even greater achievements.”

She also highlighted deep concerns about children with disabilities, whom she described as the most vulnerable in society.

“To me, the very least among us are our children, and even further down the ladder are disabled children, and unfortunately that is the way we treat them.” She welcomed ongoing work on an inclusive education policy but insisted that it “cannot come soon enough.”

She urged that children with disabilities must not be discriminated against or made to feel separate. “It is important that the children with disabilities in our midst are not discriminated against, that they are fully included, that they are part of mainstream education as far as their intellectual capacity will allow, and that they are not allowed to feel other; that they are part of us.”

Marshall-Harris also called for the teaching of civic responsibility, values, peace, and conflict resolution to be integrated into the curriculum as a tool to reduce youth involvement in crime. She said this was “the best way to redirect our young people away from criminal activity and the increasing incidence of violence among them.”

Marshall-Harris noted that the Convention on the Rights of the Child places parents at the centre of child development. “Both parents have the primary responsibility and care for children,” she said, adding that when parents struggle, “we the community must step in and help parents to do this for children.”

She warned that children continue to face severe threats worldwide and locally, including abuse and community violence. Society had a duty to protect all children “from all harm, from all abuse – verbal, emotional, physical, sexual, and cyber abuse.” Discipline, she said, must be positive and non-degrading. “We also have to ensure that this discipline is positive and is not harmful nor degrading,” she said.

Drawing on her work with the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Marshall-Harris said global evidence was clear that “strong, supportive parenting is the most effective way to make sure that children are not abused and guarantee their healthy development.”

She also made a call for greater inclusion of children in matters that affect them, arguing that participation is essential to preparing them for adulthood. “They must be given some opportunity to participate in matters that affect them, in order that we teach them how to take responsibility for their futures. We have to help them develop their wings, so to speak, so that they can fly.” (SZB)