COMMITTEE ON RIGHTS OF THE CHILD OFFERS PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS ON REPORT OF ST. KITTS AND NEVIS

AFTERNOON
HR/CRC/99/24
20 May 1999



Calls for Raising Effective Age of "Childhood" to 18, Greater Steps to Reduce Corporal Punishment, Improved Data Collection


The Committee on the Rights of the Child offered preliminary recommendations and conclusions this afternoon on an initial report of St. Kitts and Nevis, calling, among other things, for extension of legal protections for children from age 16 to 18, for greater efforts to reduce corporal punishment, and for more extensive collection of statistics on matters related to the welfare of children.

The Committee's experts also recommended that all areas of national legislation be brought into line with the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while noting that much legislative progress had been made.

Formal conclusions and recommendations will be issued in writing by the panel towards the end of its three-week session on 4 June.

Discussion over the course of the afternoon centred on the basic subjects of family environment and alternative care; basic health and welfare; education, leisure and cultural activities; and special protection measures.

One topic of concern to Committee members was how well children of unmarried parents, especially those of so-called "visiting relationships", were supported financially and psychologically. A two-member Government delegation from St. Kitts and Nevis told the panel that visiting and common-law relationships occurred frequently and were a part of Caribbean culture. In visiting relationships, a father did not live with a child or its mother but visited frequently, perhaps even daily, and usually contributed financially to the running of the household. These and common-law relationships (unmarried couples living together for long periods) generally posed no stigma for children and did not lead to discrimination against them, the Government officials said; but there was concern over whether these arrangements were sufficiently "stable" for the well-being of children, and a study on the matter was being carried out. Extended families often participated in the rearing of children of such relationships, they add
ed -- frequently a grandfather was a role model and a source of stability.

Committee members recommended further study of the effects of visiting relationships on children.

As one of 191 States parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, St. Kitts and Nevis -- a country of 45,000 whose territory consists of two islands in the Caribbean -- is required to provide the Committee with periodic reports on efforts to implement the treaty's provisions. Such written reports serve as a basis for questioning and discussion between Government delegations and Committee experts.

The Government delegation consisted of Sam Condor, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade, Industry, Youth, Sports, and Community Affairs, and Marlene Liburd, Director of Youth and Community Affairs.

The Committee will meet in private session Friday, 21 May. It will next meet in public at 10 a.m. Tuesday, 25 May, to begin review of a report from Honduras.

Discussion

The delegation responded to a number of questions posed at the end of the morning meeting and to further queries over the course of the afternoon under the general topics of family environment and alternative care; basic health and welfare; education, leisure, and cultural activities; and special protection measures.

MARLENE LIBURD, Director of Youth and Community Affairs of St. Kitts and Nevis, said, among other things, that there was no apparent discrimination between boys and girls in terms of adoption and foster care, although the number of boys needing to be placed in foster care tended to be greater than the number of girls; that, by legal act and under the Constitution, no children were "illegitimate" -- all children were legitimate; and that in society there did not appear to be any practical discrimination against children born out of wedlock.

In Caribbean culture there were many "visiting" or "common-law" relationships; in the first case, the parents were not married, but fathers tended to visit their children frequently and played an influential role in their lives, although they did not live with the mother and the children; most such fathers felt an obligation to contribute financially to the home and did so; on occasion there were two men "visiting" the same mother in relation to different children, and problems resulted. Common-law relationships consisted of unmarried couples living permanently together, and often there were children of such relationships. As both these types of relationships were part of the culture there was difficulty in changing them. Extended families tended to play significant roles in such situations, Ms. Liburd said -- a grandfather often served as a child's role model. There had been some Government concern that children in these relationships might lack a sense of stability, and a study was being done on the ma
tter.

A "maintenance law" required that fathers contribute to the expenses of their children, she said; in general, money and support were not a problem, although if difficulties arose the court could attach the father's earnings.

Once cases of sexual abuse had been brought to the attention of the Department of Youth and Community Affairs, Ms. Liburd said, the department worked in coordination with the police; counselling was provided both for the victim and perpetrator; and generally it was the child who was removed from the home to prevent further abuse; it was true that that seemed unfair -- that it should be the perpetrator who should leave -- but in practice that frequently was not easy to achieve.

Perhaps one teen-ager in the past 15 years had committed suicide, Ms. Liburd said.

Sexual exploitation of children, prostitution, street children, and pornography were not a problem in the country, she said; she hoped this situation would continue.

About 50 per cent of children under age 3 were enrolled in day-care centres supported by the Government, she said; and pre-school facilities also were heavily used.

Condoms and contraceptive pills were readily available at 17 health centres throughout the country, she said; there was some resistance among males to the use of condoms, but with educational and health programmes that appeared to be dissipating.

SAM CONDOR, Deputy Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis and Minister of Trade, Industry, Youth, Sports, and Community Affairs, said that if a father emigrated, leaving a child behind, he still was financially responsible for supporting the child, and such a father had to sign an agreement to continue financial maintenance before leaving the country.

The school system was a good one, Mr. Condor said, and school libraries were well-stocked and effective, with some now being equipped with computers; a programme provided free school uniforms to children from low-income families; textbooks were provided free; examination fees were paid for all students taking overseas examinations; still there were drop-outs, and the Government was trying to reduce their number.

The drinking age was 18; a number of programmes, including programmes in school, dealt with responsible use of alcohol and warned against the dangers of cigarettes, Mr. Condor said.

The Government cabinet -- the entire cabinet -- had visited schools where there were problems with student violence, he said; a very strong message was being sent that violence would not be tolerated.

The Constitution set a limit of 48 hours' custody before charges had to be filed, and that limit applied to children; all detainees had to be granted access to counsel. Juvenile crimes tended to have to do with fighting and stealing. Persons under 18 could be held for up to three months in adult prisons for extremely serious offences, but then had to be remanded to juvenile-rehabilitation centres; when in adult prisons they were kept separate from adult inmates.

Programmes related to drug abuse focused on prevention as well as rehabilitation, Mr. Condor said; prevention programmes began in schools when children were very young; there was not a great problem with drugs but the Government was determined that it did not grow or get out of control.

Preliminary conclusions and recommendations

Committee members had several preliminary reactions to the report of St. Kitts and Nevis. Formal conclusions and recommendations will be issued towards the end of the panel's three-week session on June 4.

Committee members said, among other things, that it was laudable that legal reforms had been undertaken by the Government to bring domestic legislation into line with the provisions of the Convention but that areas of legislation still remained that did not reflect the standards of the Convention; that the age of 16 appeared to be the watershed age where childhood ended, yet protections would better be extended through age 18; that attitudes needed to be changed about corporal punishment and the practice reduced and even eradicated, if possible; and that greater assessment of "visiting relationships" needed to be carried out to see if they were damaging to children.

Committee members said that while school attendance and literacy rates were high, further attention should be paid to the educational system and to making it pupil-focused rather than teacher-focused; they encouraged the Government to continue and intensify efforts to shape administrative structures so that the interests of children were carefully tended to and the situation of children was effectively monitored; and said further progress was needed in the collection of statistics related to children.