Two CSOs Engaged to Provide Access to Justice Services for the Most Vulnerable

Two civil society organisations (CSOs), Children First and the Jamaica Association for the Deaf (JAD), have been engaged under the Social Justice (SO-JUST) Project to provide access to justice services for the society’s most vulnerable.

The aim is to facilitate these provisions for persons with hearing impairments and children in contact and conflict with the law.

Implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and funded by Global Affairs Canada, SO-JUST will champion the rights of all persons, ensuring the needs of men and women are met as they engage with justice services.

The project will transform the services provided to victims of crime, children in court, persons in conflict, persons accused of a crime and those who seek justice, making these easier for every Jamaican to understand and use.

It will also work with State and non-State partners to ensure that all who need access to justice are equitably served.

Speaking during the recent launching ceremony at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston, Executive Director, Children First, Claudette Pious, said the organisation, which was established in 1997, has pioneered several initiatives.

These include the ‘Bashy Bus’, which is Jamaica’s first mobile reproductive health and information service, tailored for the adolescent community.

“We have done a lot of work in youth empowerment working with adolescents around youth rights and really empowering them to become valuable citizens of Jamaica. We have also done some work in education, particularly for the persons needing remedial education, and vocational training for those who have, unfortunately, been left behind,” Ms. Pious said.

“In doing so, we find that the mental health of the persons we work with is also important. So we have also added psychosocial support and mental health referrals and behaviour modification,” she added.

Ms. Pious informed that under the SO-JUST initiative, Children First will be implementing the ‘Betta Project’.

“Our goal is to look at youth delinquency, and looking at children in contact or conflict with the law and helping the children and their parents to understand how to navigate the various opportunities for assistance,” she stated.

The objective is implementing community-focused activities designed to increase awareness and provide referrals to the various support services.

“We have also developed and will be implementing an innovative educational training and psychosocial programme to enhance the capacity and empower those children in conflict or contact with the law. We will also be working around increased awareness of child rights, the court system, laws and the relevant information for children, parents and the wider community,” Ms. Pious explained.

Children First will also implement the ‘Bashy Kid’ project where they will be doing sessions with 60 youngsters, aged nine to 12, providing them with soft skills and psychosocial support and helping them to develop good habits.

“We know there are those youngsters that are disruptive, and we’ve been working with 50 of those youngsters between the ages of 13 and 18 in a special 12-week behaviour-modification programme. We will be doing that in collaboration with the schools, agencies, the Ministry of Justice and the courts,” the Executive Director said.

Twelve children advocates will also be trained to become the voice of the youngsters, and with their permission and that of the parents will become involved in the Children First social media campaign.

The CSO will also be working with 200 parents islandwide, helping them to understand how the justice system works.

“We will be collaborating with the Child Diversion Unit, the Victim Support Division, the court system, Ministry of Education and Youth, and other non-governmental organisations in the communities in order to bring some worthwhile results,” Ms. Pious informed.

Children First will, under the project, also seek to increase the understanding among 560 community members in three parishes regarding their knowledge of legal support services.

The targeted parishes are Kingston and St. Andrew, Clarendon and St. Catherine.

“This is really a very, very good event for me because Children First, as an organisation, is committed to making a difference in the lives of the children we serve. We’re very grateful that we have been given this opportunity, and we are amongst the first set of NGOs given the opportunity; and we want to say thanks to Canada and the UNDP and our other partners for giving us this opportunity,” Ms. Pious stated.

For her part, Executive Director, JAD, Kimberley Mariott-Blake, said under SO-JUST, the key objective is improving access to justice services for the hearing impaired through the empowerment of service providers.

“We will be using our resources that we’ve been granted for three sensitisation awareness sessions on deaf culture. We will be ensuring that up to 100 persons gain access to that information… and that’s across the island, including attorneys, to be better able to engage with the deaf person who is your client, or the deaf person who is on the other side of the bench,” she stated.

The JAD will also be engaging in four introductory sessions customised for legal services, to ensure that up to 80 participants get the basics.

“So instead of it being ‘what am I going to do now?’, it’s going to be ‘how can I help… is there someone I can support… is there some way I can support you?’ It will not be running away when the deaf person is in need of services. We will [also] be developing a manual, a toolkit for some best practices… to guide communication with and to support that improved service delivery,” Mrs. Marriott-Blake stated.

The target beneficiaries include members who engage in the courts, legal service organisations such as the Legal Aid Council (LAC), and practising attorneys retained through the LAC to deliver services.

So far, sensitisation sessions have been held with 36 justice service providers.

“I don’t want us to be here thinking that the work will be done when the project is over. There is much to be done [as] we continue to have issues with disaggregated data, information is not adequately collected at police stations and across the justice system. And so, because of that, we are often unsure of how many people need the service and the nature of the service needed,” Mrs. Mariott-Blake said.

“We don’t have enough specialists to support identification of individuals with hearing loss and the reality [is] that some persons are not just deaf, but have other disabilities. We also have a significant issue of an attitudinal barrier that is sometimes perpetuated by religious and cultural perspective, and we do have a system that is limited in our ability to verify, monitor, and identify some of the critical stakeholders to help us in provision of services,” she added.

The Executive Director further stated that there is very limited exposure of persons to legal literacy and clarity on the justice system.

Additionally, she said there is limited access to spaces in the public and private sector where people can engage with service delivery.

“That is why it is so important for the Legal Aid Council to be empowered and prepared to engage with persons because when an individual shows up in need of help, we don’t want to have to turn someone back unfairly. There’s also consistent support from our government entities to ensure that individuals are identified and adequately referred,” she stated.

The Executive Director noted that the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is intended to protect the privileges and dignity of persons with disabilities,

She further stated that locally, “we have our Disabilities Act, and that’s our local standard for disability access”.

“The Jamaica Council for Persons with Disabilities (JCPD) is already a partner for our Legal Aid Council and is our government agency that is armed with the responsibility of championing the rights for persons with disabilities. Of course, the JAD, is the largest provider of services for the deaf and hard of hearing and their families on the island, and we are prepared to support you in any way we can,” Mrs. Mariott-Blake added.