High-level committee meeting on child protection |22 April 2020

The high-level committee meeting yesterday at State House (Photo: Jude Morel)

‘Zero tolerance to child abuse’

President Danny Faure has reiterated the government’s zero tolerance stance on child abuse.

It was the principal secretary for social affairs, Linda William-Melanie, who made the statement after attending a high-level committee meeting on child protection called and chaired by President Faure at State House yesterday morning.

The meeting was to discuss issues relating to the protection of children and to propose recommendations.

The call for the meeting follows the conviction of three men last week on various counts of sexual assault on children which also included extortion, possession of indecent photographs and of prohibited visual recordings. They all pleaded guilty and the first offender was sentenced to 25 years in prison, the second offender to 12 years and the third offender to 8 years.

It is believed that over 100 children have been abused in this case although only 75 of them had the courage to come forward to testify.

PS William-Melanie, accompanied by Attorney General Frank Ally, was briefing the press on the outcome of the meeting at State House.

“The message that has come out clearly is that the government has a zero tolerance policy to child abuse. We will continue to work with all partners involved and do whatever we can to ensure that strategies are put in place and even if we have to review legislation, so as to ensure that we protect our children,” Mrs Melanie said, noting that government wants to send a strong message to parents, other adults and partners, to give a helping hand in the protection of children.

“Child protection is everybody’s business. We want everyone out there to get the message that as a society we do not tolerate child abuse,” PS Melanie said.

PS Melanie stated that President Faure has called on all partners involved in child protection to work collaboratively and review the structures, services and laws so as to come with new proposals with regard to the protection of children.

She added that the police, social services and other partners involved, are doing their upmost in detecting and intervening in child abuse cases thus making sure that abusers face the consequences.

She noted that President Faure has set May 15, 2020 as the deadline for the committee to submit a set of comprehensive recommendations.

Attorney General Frank Ally for his part noted that they discussed some immediate measures that could be taken to reinforce the protection of children against sexual abuse while social affairs and relevant stakeholders get to work collaboratively with other government ministries, departments and agencies to combat child abuse.

He stated that the discussions were not centred on the specific case which the three man were sentenced but the case was used more or less as a basis for broader discussion on other important issues relating to the protection of children.

He noted that the laws in place in the country that protect children against abuses are quite severe but still more needs to be done to eliminate abuses against children as more children are constantly being violated.

“Government wants to intensify its effort to protect children to ensure that we are more or less on the alert at all times and that we also give assistance to those who are victims of sexual offences,” Mr Ally said.

Other members of the committee present at the high-level meeting were Designated Minister Macsuzy Mondon; the Minister for Education and Human Resource Development, Jeanne Simeon; the Minister for Family Affairs, Mitcy Larue; Chief Justice Mathilda Twomey; the secretary of state for Health, Ambassador Marie-Pierre Lloyd; the chairperson of the National Commission for Child Protection, Dr Erna Athanasius; and the Commissioner of Police, Kishnan Labonte.

Patrick Joubert