Children across the country will now be more au fait with some of their fundamental rights, following the creation for distribution countrywide of booklets of child-friendly versions of three recent updated laws. The pieces of legislation are the Adoption of Children Act (2009 and 2011,) the Custody, Contact, Guardianship and Maintenance Act 2011 and the Status of Children Act, Number 19 of 2009.
The documents were produced by the Rights of the Child Commission, and the Child Rights Division, Childcare and Protection Agency, and the Labour, Human Services and Social Security Ministry with technical and financial support from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Human Services and Social Security Minister Jenifer Webster, as she received copies of the three booklets from Rights of the Child Chairperson Aleema Nasir on Monday at the commission’s Peter Rose and Anira streets building, credited the late Rights of the Child commissioner Shirley Ferguson for starting the initiative.
Child-friendly
“Shirley in herself would have been happy today that this really became a reality because she was working on it,” Minister Webster said.
She explained that “Shirley was one of those persons who advocated that things for children, especially sensitising our children, should be done in a very child-friendly way.”
Translating the documents from their legal language into simple terms was the passion of the late commissioner but Ferguson, regrettably passed away earlier this year before the project was completed.
Minister Webster also commended too, the commission for the initiative of having the laws that pertain to children become child-friendly so that children throughout Guyana would be familiar with the laws that exist.
She said that the ministry is committed to ensuring that all the booklets are distributed as widely as possible, recognising the importance of ensuring that children understand their basic human rights in keeping with the Convention of the Rights of Child.
Nasir explained that the need for the booklets was recognised at a recent child participation workshop, which was attended by children from all 10 regions.
She said at the workshop, the children spoke very assertively about all the things that they would like to see happen with regards to childcare and child rights in Guyana.
She said one aspect that the children were very vocal about was the need to better understand their rights.
